DON’T BE A FAITH WIMP

A lot of people today who call themselves Christians are really just gutless wimps when it comes to the expression of their faith in God’s ability and His willingness to help them. I don’t mean to sound rude, but it’s true. The requirement of expressing your faith is at the very heart and is the core of what being a believer in Christ is all about, that is, professing Christ. If you are afraid to do that publicly, then unfortunately for God, yourself, and everyone you know, you are a spiritual wimp.

One of the main reasons for this is simple. You are afraid of what other people will think. Well, you might have good reason for it. You’re worried that because you know by listening to the conversation of others, that they may not appreciate you expressing your faith in God when it comes down to the basic affairs of life that we all must deal with. You want to be liked and you believe that some, even those within your own circle of friends and family, may turn away from you and for all practical purposes, exclude you from their lives from that point on. And don’t kid yourself, they might!

This can happen even with your own children. You know, the same children who have benefited from you having used your faith to enable them to grow up strong and healthy and lead quality lives. This may also include your friends and co-workers who you’ve prayed for and then watched God help them over the years who didn’t even know God helped them because you prayed, or even refused to acknowledge His help.

The risk is just too much for you to take, and so you pull back, little by little over time until no one can even tell the difference anymore between you and everyone else. It’s happening all around you all the time.

Well what’s so wrong with that? What’s wrong with being silent and just letting everybody live and let live? What’s wrong with that is, your light will have gone out. If you’re going to sing "this little light of mine" in church on Sunday, but won’t speak the word if God in front of others the rest of the week, then you have effectively placed your candle under a basket.

In the Bible, the book of Matthew, Chapter 5 verses 14 thru 16, Jesus said this. "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and then place it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to the whole house. Let your light so shine before men, that they see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

Good works? What good works? Well you might notice it does not say to run around acting like you are being goody two shoes. It means sharing your testimony of Jesus with others and helping them in whatever way you can.

Being a believer in Christ makes you a light in this world. just like He was the light of this world when He was walking here. The fact is, you may have forgotten that He IS the light, and that you are merely the vessel that He uses to shine through. If you try to hide your expression of faith just to get along and hope your children, spouse and friends won’t run away, you don’t even need to bother telling anyone you are a believer anymore because you won’t have the power to back it up.

This basic misunderstanding that we have all had can turn us into spiritual wimps until we truly discover that those who do not place their faith in the word of God are the ones who should be worried about looking foolish, not the believer. These may be pretty strong words, but this is excellent preaching once you grasp this huge revelation.

Without even realizing it, everyone you know is using their faith in what they believe everyday of their lives, and they are not ashamed of it and don’t mind telling everyone about it. They even brag and boast about it. People cannot get through the first thirty minutes of the day without using their faith. And they continue using it every few minutes of the rest of the day and all day long.

The difference in how they are using their faith and how a believer uses theirs is determined by what is behind their faith. What is backing up your faith. If you hand the store clerk a twenty dollar bill, you believe they will let you leave the store with the items you’ve selected without an argument. You don’t believe that because the store clerk is a friend of yours, or because you go to school with the store owner’s daughter. You believe it because you believe that the currency you have used for payment is backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States government. You don’t really know that. You haven’t ever been to Fort Knox and audited the books to find out if everything balances. No, you just believe it because it actually says that on the currency.

This is using faith. It’s only more believable to you in that setting because it is something you can see, feel and touch. If you say that you know your car insurance guarantees to pay your claim in an accident, you don’t really know that either, you just believe that because you know you have paid a premium that entitles you to that supposed coverage and protection, and the by the words someone told you were written on a piece of paper that in all honesty, you didn’t even take time to read.

When you turn on the faucet to brush your teeth, you believe that water will flow out from the tap, even though you have never seen the water plant, and you even believe the water coming out is clean, not because you’ve tested it, but because someone told you or you assumed that there was a treatment used to clean the water at this unseen invisible water plant that is located somewhere you’ve never been. You even believe that by performing the act of brushing your teeth, that it somehow guarantees that they will always be nice and pearly white and that you'll get to keep them for a long time, but you really don't know that either. It's true in many if not most cases, but there have been exceptions. You could actually get into a fistfight with someone twenty years from now and have them knocked out! And if you're believing that it won't happen, you're using faith then too. My scenario although ridiculous, drives home the point that there is no way to avoid having to use faith.

You cannot get through the balance of the day without using your faith. No one can. From believing a key will start a car to believing that pressing a number on a pad will connect you to another person to converse with, faith is how it is achieved.

So why did I say that you were a spiritual wimp? Because you let everyone else use and publicly express their faith, and you go along with it and you don’t laugh and disown them. You don’t mock them and scoff to try and make them feel bad. Well why not?

It should be because you know that what is backing up your faith is greater than what is backing up their faith. If they say I’m in good hands with Allstate, you could say, “he that resides in the secret place of the most high, abides under the shadow of the almighty. Therefore no evil shall befall me and no plague shall come near my dwelling. Both statements may be true, but the weight behind the statement you made is heavier, taller, stronger, and far more powerful than their statement.

The difference between the two declarations is based on whose word is backing it up. If an advertisement says that a certain pharmaceutical drug would cure you of a disease or alleviate your symptoms, then as far as the person who said it is concerned, all that is really backing up that statement is a psychologically carefully crafted TV script read by a smooth and convincing voice-over artist and some pictures of people frolicking in the park being so happy with their disease. So don’t think you’re going to laugh at me when I say instead that, with long life the Lord will satisfy me, or, the Lord God is my healer and He will restore my health, because the huge unlimited power that is behind my statement is bigger and better than the little bit of temporary earthly power that is backing up your statement. If there was ever a moment that a believer could say to the world that mine is bigger than yours, this would be it!

And how about your money? Do you really put your money in a 401k, an IRA, a CD, the Stock Market or some other form of investment method with people you’ve never met, at a place that you’ve never seen before, and yet you believe that they will still have your money intact when it comes time to withdraw it? Boy do you have some great faith! Aren’t those investment products designed and managed by greedy unscrupulous white collar Wall Street thugs and under-regulated by lazy, money hungry career politicians? And you still believe that your money is safe? Now who’s laughing?

Even a basic product that comes with a lifetime guarantee can only last if the company backing it up stays in business. Instead, if I say that my God shall supply all of my needs by His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, then some may say I’m one of those faith nuts. Name it and claim it. Blab it and grab it. Hope it and rope it, and the list goes on, but actually my statement has more weight and power behind it than yours does. And I’m supposed to be worried that you’re going to laugh at me? We’ll go ahead. You’re not bothering me!

And don’t fall for the old natural faith versus spiritual faith argument either. It’s the exact same faith. Faith is faith. It can be applied to the natural or the spiritual, but it’s the same faith.

As believers we need others to see that our confidence is great in the Lord and in His word that He has spoken in the scriptures. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using any good earthly tools that you can find to save money, to stay healthy and so forth. You should do that. The difference that I’m talking about is in the application of your faith and what source is actually backing up the faith that you are using.

We’re already using our faith to make it through each and every day of our lives, so don’t be worried that someone might scoff or mock you about it, because some people may. Actually, they will. Just realize that we could be the one’s laughing and mocking their belief, but we don’t do that.

As believers, we also know that same God does not want us to try to win an argument or get one over on somebody else who hasn’t yet received a particular revelation. The love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, also causes us to want the best for everyone else. Even those who laugh at us because we use and express our faith in God and His word.

The funny thing is, much of that faith is used on behalf of those doing the laughing. Many of them don’t know that we're doing it for them, because no one has told them.

Don’t be a spiritual wimp. Tell them.