Because He Said So!

Sometimes in my faith walk, I come up against something in God's Word that I don't really track on as I should. Then I have a crisis of belief: " How do I respond to this?" or "What is God calling me to do?" I would like to think I will bend my will to do whatever God's Word says, but sometimes there is a hesitation that is caused by worldliness or indifference in my life. Where does this come from? I think it comes from the issue of "where is my obedience? When I get to the point where I am doubting the truth of God's Word for my life, I have some compromise going on, and do I accept that compromise as a way of life? When the Lord is teaching us and calling us, His standard is so much higher than ours, and as God said to Isaiah in Isaiah 55:8, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. ⁹ For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. We need to commit to following God's ways, even when they are really "out there."

When God came to Abram and told Him that He was going to bless Him, He required something of Abram that was a physical thing called circumcision, and this physical show of following God made Abram right for service to God, and it was his part of the covenant. Genesis 17:⁹ Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility. ¹⁰ This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.¹¹ You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between you and me. ¹² From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased. ¹³ All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.”

The act of circumcision was what God required, so Abram, even in His old age, was circumcized. As part of the Law, this requirement lasted through the next hundreds of years until the time of Jesus, and what was a physical covenant to God that changed into a spiritual covenant when Jesus shed His blood for the sins of mankind. Paul wrote this in Romans 2: ²⁸ For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. ²⁹ No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. That which was a physical act turned into a spiritual act because of Jesus and Paul said that a true believer is one whose heart is right with God, and that right heart is produced by the Spirit. This falls right in line with how Paul identified where the battle for all believers is found. Ephesians 6:² For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

¹³ Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

Stop thinking about faith only in the physical world, and begin to see that there is another dimension, a spiritual dimension where Jesus is in control and we must see Him for who He is, our redeemer and our Savior. Jesus has given us weapons in which to fight the fight, and those weapons are listed in Ephesians 6: 14-17. Paul closes out that chapter by telling us to pray "in the Spirit" at all times and on very occasion. Paul also said to stay alert and be persistent in our prayers for all believers everywhere. Why do we follow God's commands and live the life He calls to? Be cause God said so!! Nuff said!!

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren