| Dear
One,
I would like to introduce you to a
friend of mine or should I say an acquaintance that I have known for a
long time. She and I first met at a church that we attended a number of
years ago. She has since moved to the West Coast and lives in a small
ocean side community. I am going to call my friend, Rita. Matter of
fact, I'm going to call her "Return Rita".
Why Return Rita? Well, she has a knack
of coming in and out of my life - I hear from her when she's frustrated
and tired. And, because of that fact, we have never had much of a chance
to become any more than just mere acquaintances. The desire is certainly
there but the opportunity has never presented itself because of two
things. Rita does a lot of talking and I do a lot of listening; and we
never go beyond a certain topic - the grace of God. I can tell you all
sorts of "information" about Rita - her husband's name, the
ages of her children and facts of the sort. However, the most important
information that I know about Rita is something that she has never
personally told me about herself - it's her absolute fear of leaving her
faith in herself behind and embracing the grace of God.
Rita and I have probably talked on the
telephone at least twenty times over the past couple of years. I can
tell you almost every detail of our conversation before the telephone
even rings. It would go something like this: we exchange pleasantries
(husbands, kids, etc.), discuss current events (including the weather)
and then I ask the ever-popular question, "So, Rita, how are things
going?" Well, somewhere along the line in our relationship,
"things" has come to mean her relationship with Jesus. There
is always a long silent pause and then she says, "Well, not too
well, you see…" Nine out of ten times she begins to describe how
tired and frustrated she has become from trying to find the perfect
formula for making sure that all her bases are covered with God. Rita
just refuses to accept that Christ has done it all. Now she will agree
with me that she believes that He has done it all - but what her mouth
says and what her actions say are two different things.
Hence, the name "Return
Rita". She returns to me year after year (not unlike the swallows
of Capistrano) asking me to just tell her what she needs to do. To put
it bluntly, she wants to know what work she must add to faith - she just
won't accept that this so-called Christian life is by faith in Him
alone. She desperately wants me to give her something that God expects
her to do for Him and I refuse to. As you can imagine, many of our
conversations have ended abruptly because Rita's anger has gotten the
best of her. When I tell Rita how much Jesus loves her and wants a more
intimate and personal relationship with her, she coos in agreement. I
recount scripture after scripture (Eph. 2:4-10; 1 Tim. 1:5; Titus 3:4-7;
1 John 4:9-11, 19) to her as a reminder that it's the word of God that
is the source of all truth, not me and I hear a loud "amen".
As I press further by reminding her of His desire that she depend upon
Him, walk in total dependence; I can hear her breathing start to change,
it becomes harder and louder. Finally, when I tell her that I know that
her new heart longs to please God and that it is faith in Him that
pleases God, not faith in her ability to obey Him or to do things for
Him, I can actually hear her hold her breath. Usually the conversation
deteriorates pretty quickly from there and we hurriedly say our
good-byes, with a promise to talk again soon. Do you see that faith in
Him alone panics Rita? She hasn't given up on herself yet.
I want to ask you the same basic
question that I asked Rita the last time that we spoke - whom are you
placing your faith in? Are you placing your faith in your ability to
obey the law? Are you placing your faith in your capacity to do things
for God? In other words, are YOU the object of your faith?
Ladies, I've done a "faith"
search and haven't been able to find one verse of scripture that talks
about faith in anyone but Christ. But, what I have seen and continue to
see is how these foundational truths build upon one another:
- Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by
grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should
boast." We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in
ourselves does not save us - not a result of works.
- Colossians 2:6 says, "As you
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him". As
we were saved, by faith, now walk in faith. I do not see where this
verse changes from faith in Him to faith in ourselves or our works,
do you?
- Galatians 3: 2-3 reminds us,
"This is the only thing that I want to find out from you; did
you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by hearing with
faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now
trying to attain your goals by human effort?" Sounds like
someone is trying to change over from beginning faith in Christ over
to faith in their efforts…
- And then continual reminders that
our faith is to rest in Him - Romans 4:5; Romans 5:1-2, Romans
9:30-32; I Corin. 2:5; II Corin. 5:7, Gal. 3:11 - to mention just a
few.
In those verses of scripture, did you
see anyone else, anything else that we are to place our faith in other
than Jesus Christ? He is the object of our faith - it's Him and Him
alone. There is nothing else. But just in case you aren't convinced, let
me assure you of this one thing - if you are continuing to place your
faith in your abilities, your experiences, your works, you will discover
something very interesting. You will return to your works time and time
again because they will never satisfy. Next time it will be trying a
little bit harder, maybe a little bit longer or with a brand new twist.
It will be the same song but different verse after different verse after
different verse. Sounds very much like the frustration and exhaustion
that Rita has continued to experience year in and year out, doesn't it?
I don’t know about you but I'm
feeling pretty drained right now just contemplating all this talk about
re-doing activity and re-dedicating effort. Holy smokes, I'm so thankful
that as children of God, we have been called to partake of His rest.
Hebrews 4:9-10 says, "There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for
the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also
rested from his works, as God did from His." Sounds like a
prescription for rest to me. Ahhh, sweet, sweet rest…
Rrrrrring, rrrrring. Hello? Oh, hello
Rita. It's nice to hear your voice, too. No, I'm sorry, she can't come
to the telephone right now. You see, she's kinda "busy". No,
she's not in the middle of something - she's resting. No, she's not
sleeping, she's just resting. No, she feels fine. Nope, she hasn't been
sick. No, Rita, she's not having a quiet time. Not in prayer either…
Rita, she's just resting. Sure, I'll have her call you later. Oh, by the
way, how are things going?
I love you,
Marcy
marcy@gospelfortoday.org |
