Colossians 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Faith is not an emotion and hope is not a good feeling; our Faith and Hope is Christ Jesus. Faith is not a belief system and our faith is not just the knowledge of Jesus but is the personification of Jesus Himself. The more we know Him the deeper our faith will grow. As long as our faith and hope is a feeling, it will be pumped up one moment and it will plummet the next, when we are hit by unforeseen tests and trials. Feelings help us to show our affection to God but faith is our relationship with Him. This is why Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship.
The more room we make for Christ to reside and rule in us, the more balanced our feelings will be. If our emotions drive us our faith will be fragile and hope will be wobbly. ‘Emotion’ is a very dangerous driver. When emotions are behind the wheel, we will be ‘Yoyo Christians’. Like a yoyo, circumstances, crisis and comrades will be able to wind, unwind or rewind us. However when our faith and hope is Jesus Himself, our circumstances cannot control or crash us. Hence, faith is not ‘what we believe’ but ‘who we believe’. Faith is not a set of doctrines but Jesus Himself. Faith is all about our personal relationship with Christ Jesus. It is about God and Me.
David was knocked to the ground when he returned back to Ziklag. The Amalekites had raided Ziklag and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep (1 Samuel 30:1-2&4). His friends turned into fiends as they were bitter about their loss. They wanted to stone David and blamed him for the grief. But David found strength in the Lord his God (vs 6b).
Through the suffering he found strength in God. He found hope as he knew His Saviour personally as his Father and Defender.
Faith and hope are not the hypothetical knowledge about God but Christ Himself.
God and Me:
1. Loss: No loss is pleasant. When the substratum of our faith is Christ Jesus, heart-breaking news will not rupture our hope. David did not allow his overwhelming sorrow to overtake him or his emotions to cripple him. God is bigger than our circumstances and the loss.
2. Logic: Logic will empty hope and shake our faith. Rational analysis of the situation concluded that David and his men had lost their families hence the men turned bitter but David found strength as he knew that His Lord can overturn the rational and reality.
3. Lever: The gruesome diagnosis or prognosis is to leverage our faith in Him who is the hope of glory.
Faith and Hope are not feelings but Jesus Himself.
Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Prayer: Father God, may I never be a ‘Yoyo Christian’ driven by my emotions but teach me to know you beyond my feelings. Amen.
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