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Faith Without Arrogance

Photo by Priscila Du Preez
Over the summer, I began the tedious process of reviewing blogs I had previously written and putting them into a personal collection. As I read, I was delighted in the transformation of my writing over the years. It was a hot mess in the beginning to say the least. Oh, my goodness the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors were enough to make me blush! Yet, God blessed anyway! Some of the blogs encouraged and ministered to me from the pulpit of past experiences and deliverances. Other blogs quite frankly embarrassed me. I removed them because the arrogance of my faith was a stench even to me. 

Since beginning this project, I have been thinking a lot about the personality of Jesus. God in the flesh walking amongst His creation who undoubtedly told Him things He already knew or knew to be false. Imagine communing with that one "friend" that you knew would ultimately betray you. Yet, He was a teacher walking in oneness with God Almighty leading with love and humility. Jesus had all the answers, after all, but He only spoke what was fitting and purposeful. 

As Christians, we often get way out of balance swinging on a pendulum from one extreme to another. From starchy legalism to so much freedom and grace we begin the slow descent into moral compromise. Jesus was Jesus every day of the week and in every situation He faced. His faith in the Father did not waiver nor did His relationship suffer. He walked continuously, boldly, joyfully, righteously, gracefully, and humbly through it all.

The Amplified translation describes faith as "an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom, and goodness of God" and "comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses." Faith endures regardless of the season and despite the circumstances. Just as Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, there is a time and a season for all things. To me, faith looks like the quiet confidence of a lion walking among his pride and the bold roar when the enemy dares to wander into his territory. There is a time to be silent and a time to declare with boldness, but never with arrogance. Profession of faith should never belittle or degrade but rather make others desire what you possess. It should never come from superiority, but rather as one taking the hand of another and walking side by side as Jesus did with His disciples.

Faith can sometimes be most evident in the messy times when your prayer is only tears as you sit at the feet of your Savior. In that moment, you are acknowledging your humanness and professing His faithfulness as you offer up your brokenness to the Father. 

Sometimes our arrogance arises from a place in which we feel the need to defend our beliefs or even to push those beliefs on others to "help them see the light" There is a difference in quoting scripture and living scripture. There is a difference in wielding the word as a sword against your enemy or weaponizing the word to exalt yourself and put your fellow man under your feet. God is our defender. We do not have to defend Him. His word stands forever and if He said it, it will be done. All we must do is trust. That is your truest testimony and light to others who will most certainly want what you possess without you ever uttering a word. Stand on what you know and believe in the God of your salvation!

"God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

Numbers 23:19

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