Never Stop Believing

The battle of the Christian life has always been not just
to believe, but to keep on believing. This is how we grow strong in
faith and see the actual fulfillment of God’s promises in our lives.

Today we tend to soft-pedal unbelief as little more than
a common weakness. But God takes no such easygoing approach (see Heb.
10:35-39).

Rejecting God’s promises to us is far more destructive
than the sensational sins we often talk about. The Bible says it is a
“sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (Heb.
3:12, NIV).

The great target of Satan is to break down our faith. He
knows all too well that the righteous live by faith, so he aims at
cutting our lifeline to God.

Faith is like the hand that reaches up to receive what
God has freely promised. If the devil can pull your hand back down to
your side, then he has succeeded.

Real faith is produced when our hearts draw near to God
and receive His promises deep within us. There, by divine power, His
Word will work supernaturally.

The chronic disease that afflicts us is not a lack of
effort; it’s a lack of real faith. Many times we are treating the
outward behavior and not its source.

We are running the race of faith. And we desire to
receive not only God’s ultimate promise of salvation but also the many
other promises He has made to us along the way.

Faith Follows Promises

Because of the unique place God has given to faith, His
grace flows along the channels of His promises—not His commands. God’s
commands show His holy character and reveal our sinfulness, but they
have no ability in themselves to empower us to obey.

It is not that we don’t know what is right or that we
don’t desire to live that way. Our problem is mustering the spiritual
strength to obey, and the commands of God cannot impart that (see Rom.
7:18).

Saints down through the ages have not so much clung to
the holy commands of God and the accompanying judgment to all offenders
as they have cherished the promises and revelations concerning His
great salvation through Christ (see Rom. 4:5; 8:1,3; 1 John 1:9). When
trusted, these blessed promises of God release His supernatural grace
in and through us.

It is these promises that draw the heart to God in faith. In fact, the great command of the New Covenant is to believe!

The Israelites who left Egypt came up short with regard
to possessing the new land for this reason: They heard clearly what God
promised, but their hearts did not receive it in faith (see Heb. 4:2).

Today it is possible to make a living as an esteemed
theologian and yet have no more living faith than a slug. Christians
can listen to the Word preached every Sunday—and even have a devotional
life of sorts throughout the week—without rising above the cynicism,
depression and unbelief that are so prevalent in our culture.

The Word must find within our hearts an atmosphere in
which its divine power can be released. That kind of dynamic faith
fairly oozes from the words of the great Israelite leader Joshua near
the end of his life.

He was one of only two men who left Egypt as adults and
actually made it all the way into the Promised Land. His parting
instructions reveal the environment in which faith blossoms and grows.

Look Back With Thanksgiving

Joshua begins his farewell with this ringing statement:
“You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all
these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for
you” (Josh. 23:3).

In other words, look back and think about all He has
done. How can we have faith for the future if we don’t look back often
and thank God for all He’s given us in the past?

A lack of gratitude is, in fact, one of our besetting
sins. In most of our churches, there is no outpouring of vibrant
thanksgiving and praise each Sunday because we are too preoccupied with
our problems.

Give Him praise! Let Him know from the depths of your heart how much you appreciate His goodness!

Whether it is part of your religious tradition or not,
get past your self-consciousness and formality to praise the Lord.
Refuse to be embarrassed or hindered by anyone.

Look Ahead With Anticipation

Next Joshua turned his attention to the future. At the
end of his years, he was still invoking the promises of God and boldly
declaring that “the Lord your God Himself” would conquer the remaining
Canaanite nations (see Josh. 23:5).

Every one of us can point to things in our lives that are
not yet the way God wants them to be. He wants to root out things that
hinder and mar our Christlikeness.

God also wants to use us to bless and encourage other
people in ways we have never dreamed. And He will do these things as we
live in this blessed atmosphere of faith!

Among the many definitions of faith, perhaps none is more
important than Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope
for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is the ability of the
human spirit to receive impressions from God that are born of His Word
and made alive by the Holy Spirit. We simply know that something is
going to happen, for God’s Word has been received and has activated
this spiritual sense called faith.

The natural senses have to do with present and visible
things. But faith has to do primarily with these future and invisible
things that God has promised us in His Word.

Back in the most difficult days of pastoring the Brooklyn
Tabernacle, my wife, Carol, and I were struggling to stay afloat with
maybe 40 people attending on Sunday mornings. When our daughter,
Chrissy, was about 2 years old, we noticed a lump under her eyelid.

I’d spent time praying about the problem. But I knew there was no faith in my heart, only apprehension.

We scraped up the money, and I took her to a doctor who
recommended surgery. I knew what God had said in the Bible about
healing; but I was filled with doubt and fear. I needed true, living
faith, not theoretical faith.

The following Sunday, we were worshiping together at the
end of the service. Suddenly my heart was flooded with a kind of divine
light, and I was overcome with God’s awesome greatness, which makes
everything on earth seem minuscule.

I envisioned my daughter being prayed for, and I saw her
being healed! It was a real picture before the eyes of my heart. God
had birthed something within me.

A teen-age girl brought my daughter forward. We gathered
around her, anointed her with oil and prayed together for God to heal
her. Within 48 hours, the lump was entirely gone, with no medical
intervention of any kind.

Now what would happen in our churches if people came to
each meeting with great faith and belief that God was about to do
something wonderful? Unfortunately, many Christians who strongly defend
the verbal inspiration of Scripture are the most unbelieving and
cynical about God ever doing a new thing in His church.

My question is: If Jesus is the same today as He was in
the Bible we defend, why shouldn’t we believe Him to do great things
among us and through us, so we can touch people’s lives in powerful
ways as did the first-century apostles?

Peter was no perfect saint, but God chose him and used
him mightily on the day of Pentecost. God can do the same with us if we
look to Him with childlike faith in our hearts.

Look Inward—But Carefully

In addition to looking back and looking ahead, Joshua
called the people to take stock of their obedience. They were to obey
the law of Moses and to separate themselves from the idolatrous nations
that were among them (see Josh. 23:6-8).

This separation from ungodly things was for the purpose
of maintaining the strength of the Hebrews for battle. Alliance with
sinful things saps our strength and leaves us weak before the enemy.

Joshua knew this all too well from what had happened back
at Ai (see Josh. 7:1-26). After the stirring victory at Jericho, the
army suffered an unexpected and humiliating defeat because the sinful
disobedience of one soldier, Achan, had separated the people from God’s
holy companionship.

Introspection is a two-edged sword. There are special
times for looking inward—for example, when receiving communion (see 1
Cor. 11:28-32) and at other moments of divine searching.

However, if this process consumes us, Satan can gain the
upper hand, keeping us preoccupied with our failures rather than with
Christ’s pardon and power. The apostles called people to cleanse their
hearts before God and then move on to faith and the fullness of the
Holy Spirit.

Look Away to Jesus

Joshua’s final instruction is stated very simply: “Be
very careful to love the Lord your God” (Josh. 23:11). Our gaze must
always be upon Him, for He is the one who will perform everything.

Satan wants us to focus on the problem, not the Provider.
If we stop spending time with the Lord in prayer, the concerns of the
physical world snatch our attention while the spiritual senses deaden
and the promises fade.

The number one reason Christians today don’t pray more is
that we do not grasp the connection between prayer and the promises of
God. We are trying in vain to pray “because we’re supposed to” without
a living faith in the promises of God concerning prayer.

When real faith in God arises, a certainty comes that
when we call, He will answer. Soon we find ourselves seeking Him for
wayward children to be saved, for a greater sense of the Holy Spirit in
our church services and for spiritual gifts and power to be released.

Strength to keep believing often flows into us as we just
take time to wait in God’s presence and worship Him. His promises
become wonderfully alive as the Spirit applies them to our hearts.

God Is Waiting for You

Let us not be hesitant about trusting God. What really
matters isn’t our efforts, but the wonderful truth that God is a
faithful God (see Heb. 10:22-23).

It is not what happens to people that makes for tragedy
in their lives; it is the missed opportunities to see God help them due
to their unbelief that is the real tragedy.

Joshua must have had God’s faithfulness in mind when he
ended his speech that day with this great crescendo: “You know with all
your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your
God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has
failed” (Josh. 23:14).

We, too, can finish our race in life with the same
powerful declaration. Only keep believing in the God whose promises are
forever true.

Jim Cymbala has been pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle since 1972. He is co- author with Dean Merrill of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.
He lives in New York with his wife, Carol, who directs the Grammy
Award-winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Dean Merrill assisted in the
writing of this article. Adapted from Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala, copyright © 1999. Published by Zondervan (). Used by permission.