Wednesdays With Words-Faith

 

Last week I mentioned that I have started reading a book called The Importance of Faith in Counseling.  This is a book directed at biblical counselors, but there are still things that are convicting to me as a person, not just as a counselor.  On the first page of the book, Jay Adams said

"Ever since the fall of Adam, man's problem has always been the attempt to please God without faith."

And it is true.  Often I try to do things right without examining my heart for the faith needed to carry these things through.  I try to get away with obedience in place of faith.  In many ways, this book is reminding me of things just learned in Trusting God.  Perhaps the Lord is trying to teach me something!  On page 10, he explains further why it is so important to have faith with obedience.

"So faith is essential to achieving anything that God commands you to do.  Attempts to please God that are made apart from faith become like the works of the scribes and the Pharisees; they are dead 'works' (Hebrews 6:1, 9:14).  They are dead because the scribes and Pharisees lack the faith that gives life to their works."

 And finally on page 12 he brings the faith and obedience together:

"Dependence on God, however, is not some sort of substitute for obedience.  The Bible  does not teach quietism in the Bible.  Rather, faith is the dynamic through which the power of God is tapped by the believer so as to obey.  By faith the believer does what God requires in His strength.  He must obey.  Neither is faith a substitute for obedience.  True faith is intimately connected to obedience."

I am enjoying and continually being challenged in my everyday walk with the Lord through these materials He has brought into my life!