ARE YOU LIVING THE LIFE OF FAITH?
Examine yourselves: are you living the life of faith? Put yourselves to the test. 2 Cor. 13:5, N.E.B.
Today's text challenges us to explore honestly our ongoing relationship with God. However, it is not meant to motivate us to see how many good works we are performing. As a matter of fact, examining our "good deeds list" may hinder us in our ability to discern candidly the true quality of our friendship with God.
It is like trying to determine how good your marriage is. A husband might reason, "I earn a good living, stay home nights, fix the washing machine, take out the garbage..." And a wife might reflect, "I do the laundry, fix meals, keep the house tidy, mend his socks..."
While these things are commendable and even necessary, for the most part, they are poor barometers with which to take a reading on your relationship. Really, not many couples end up in court with the complaint "He didn't empty the garbage!" or "She didn't mend my socks!" Granted these things can irritate, but it is not the things we do so much as the way we relate to each other and how we feel we are being related to by the other that make marriage work or make it intolerable.
Likewise, our relationship with God is defined not so much by the actions we do as by the attitudes we have toward God as our personal friend. It is defined also by how we perceive He is relating to us. In our efforts to please God we might ask as did the disciples, " 'Then what must we do...if we are to work as God would have us work?' Jesus replied. 'This is the work that God requires: believe in the one whom he has sent' " (John 6:28, 29, N.E.B.).
We believe that Christ is representative of all that God is. We know that when Christ healed people God our Father in heaven was showing us that He desires to heal our lives from all that makes us hurt and hurtful. When we see Mary forgiven we exclaim, "God has forgiven me!" When we witness the look of tenderest compassion on the face of Jesus for Peter, even as Peter denied Him, we understand: God still wants me, even though I sometimes deny Him.
As today's text implies, I should ask myself: "Am I living confidently and securely in my relationship with God? Is God my friend?"
Examine yourselves: are you living the life of faith? Put yourselves to the test. 2 Cor. 13:5, N.E.B.
Today's text challenges us to explore honestly our ongoing relationship with God. However, it is not meant to motivate us to see how many good works we are performing. As a matter of fact, examining our "good deeds list" may hinder us in our ability to discern candidly the true quality of our friendship with God.
It is like trying to determine how good your marriage is. A husband might reason, "I earn a good living, stay home nights, fix the washing machine, take out the garbage..." And a wife might reflect, "I do the laundry, fix meals, keep the house tidy, mend his socks..."
While these things are commendable and even necessary, for the most part, they are poor barometers with which to take a reading on your relationship. Really, not many couples end up in court with the complaint "He didn't empty the garbage!" or "She didn't mend my socks!" Granted these things can irritate, but it is not the things we do so much as the way we relate to each other and how we feel we are being related to by the other that make marriage work or make it intolerable.
Likewise, our relationship with God is defined not so much by the actions we do as by the attitudes we have toward God as our personal friend. It is defined also by how we perceive He is relating to us. In our efforts to please God we might ask as did the disciples, " 'Then what must we do...if we are to work as God would have us work?' Jesus replied. 'This is the work that God requires: believe in the one whom he has sent' " (John 6:28, 29, N.E.B.).
We believe that Christ is representative of all that God is. We know that when Christ healed people God our Father in heaven was showing us that He desires to heal our lives from all that makes us hurt and hurtful. When we see Mary forgiven we exclaim, "God has forgiven me!" When we witness the look of tenderest compassion on the face of Jesus for Peter, even as Peter denied Him, we understand: God still wants me, even though I sometimes deny Him.
As today's text implies, I should ask myself: "Am I living confidently and securely in my relationship with God? Is God my friend?"
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