I have been thinking quite a bit about Sunday’s sermon title, “Commit: Don’t Run.” How we
handle life’s challenges says a whole lot about a couple of things, our commitment level and our
faith. I think more so, our faith. According to Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on Hebrews,
“True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of the circumstances and
consequences.”
This, my friends, is the failure of our society. We have lost true Bible faith. We have been lead
to believe that our problem’s solutions lie in the world, not in God. The result of this thinking is
when we try to apply biblical principles as a solution to our problems they don’t seem like
solutions at all. The enemy has twisted and distorted truth to the point that we don’t even
consider that God is the only solution to whatever the world has thrown at us. What a hopeless
place to be! The only solution is to run as far and as fast as we can. Even Christians fall into
this trap. Have you heard this: “If only we could elect this person into office our country would
be fixed.” “If we could only try this or that then we could solve our issues at home.” Our Only
hope is faith in the one and only true God, not the “wisdom” of the world.
The world would have us believe that faith isn’t practical for our issues. Once again, Weirsbe, in
his commentary on Hebrews says this; “The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that faith is a
very practical thing, in spite of what unbelievers say. Faith enables us to understand
what God does. Faith enables us to see what others cannot see. As a result, faith enables
us to do what others cannot do! … Dr. J. Oswald Sanders put it perfectly: ‘Faith enables
the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen’.”
Applying this logic to everything we face in the daily grind will give us confidence to commit and
not run. The next time you are faced with an issue you feel you need to run from, remember
that faith in God is the answer. Then we will have confidence that God will find a way. You have
to sell out to this kind of faith and know that this faith will not let you down.
“Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved
privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward
to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and
trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance
develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident
hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we
know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to
fill our hearts with his love.” – Romans 5:2-5 (NLT)
That is good stuff, people! Commit: don’t run. God does have your back. When you finish
reading this, read Psalm 25. A good friend of mine brought that to me today.