Heart of the Savior

Read Hebrews 11

Living by faith is often perplexing—leaving us feeling at one point completely confused while at another point completely confident. Such a reality encompasses each one of us…a reality which is why, I think, Paul prays incessantly that followers of Christ would have “spiritual wisdom . . . and bear fruit in every good work” (Col 1.9-11).

Truth is, faith and “good works” are risky, inconvenient, dangerous, inopportune and will hardly be written in the sky or spoken in a dream. In fact, such faith and works will most assuredly bring about persecution, pain, turmoil or disruption. And this is precisely why Paul prays for spiritual wisdom.

Paul prays that we might have spiritual wisdom so that we might have spiritual tenacity. In order for us to catch fire of faith, we must be consumed by the wisdom of heaven. We must wrestle with the flesh so as to be crowned with the spiritual. We must saturate our hearts in prayer. We must engulf our minds with the words of Scripture. We must embrace the Spirit so as to consume the heart of Christ. For there in the heart of the Savior we will find the assurance of faith. 

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is the truth of stepping into the inconceivable acts of God. The wonderful acts of God - both extraordinary miracles and more ordinary acts of providence - come about “by faith.” When we enter into the scene of Hebrews 11 we see that:

By faith they passed through the red sea (v29) . . . by faith the walls of Jericho feel down (v30) . . . by faith Rahab . . . did not perish (v31) . . . by faith [they] conquered kingdoms (v33) . . .

In our faith we come to realize at the deepest of all levels just how crazy God loves us. And in this love our hearts are drawn into the delight and wonder of surrendering to His everything so that we might become everything He created us to be. Amen Jesus!