Monday, May 12, 2008

No Faith = No Stability

"If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." (Isa. 7:9a)

We do so love to analyze. When we are faced with insecurities or worries in our lives, we immediately want to look into our past or examine the circumstances surrounding us to find the source of our instability. I'm not saying it is never helpful to counsel with someone or consider what may have brought us to this point, but I do think we run the very real risk of clouding, rather than solving, the problem. If we are not careful, we may find ourselves deriving more pleasure from the analysis than from the answer. Am I ringing any bells here?

I know; unbelief seems like such a boring, easy diagnosis. But, more often than not, it is the very culprit. It is hard to shake a person with genuine faith in God. I'm not talking about the "smiling sweetly/cliché spouting" kind; I'm talking about the "blood and guts/going under for the third time" kind! Notice the verse does not say "cannot believe," but, rather, "will not believe." Faith may be a gift of God (Rom.12:3); but, like any gift, it can be refused.

There is a precious verse later on in Isaiah that says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (26:3). Peace of mind—stability, if you will—is linked inseparably with trust in God. We will always be spiritually and emotionally “unbalanced” as long as we choose to believe the devil instead of God. (Yes, I said “choose.”) Doubt and fretfulness slander the integrity of His name, and impeach His impeccable character. No wonder the writer of Hebrews warns us, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief" (3:12).

So, instead of looking back or around us for the root of our instability, maybe we should look deeper—for that “evil heart of unbelief.”

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