Topic: May thy faith fail not
Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 23-24; Luke 22:31-53.
Memory Verse: “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Luke 22:32 (KJV) .
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The devil, our adversary tries to test the faith of God’s children and it is the grace of God that keeps our faith standing. A number of people experienced test of their faith in the Bible and most of them overcame the test but two people stand out of those who did not recover from the failure of their faith. First is Adam who was given the forbidden fruit by his wive Eve and he ate it without raising any question. Genesis 3:6 KJV states “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” When queried by God, Adam’s only defence is that the fruit was given to him by his wife, Eve ( Gen 3:12 KJV). And due to this failure of his faith in God, man was cursed by God in Gen 3:17-19 KJV. The second person that lost his faith is Judas Iscariot. He was a disciple of Christ and because of the love of money, he betrayed his faith in Christ (John 18: 1-12) and he ended up committing suicide (Matthew 27:3-5).
In the case of Adam, the lesson is that you should not take your faith for granted even with your closest person. Every action with anyone should be preceded by the self examination if such action will amount to denial of faith in God and that issue should be resolved before you go ahead with such action. And in case of Judas, you should examine any financial transaction involving you whether such would amount to denial of faith and should only be consummated if it will not affect your faith in any form knowing that the love of money is the root of all evils.
Beside these two instances, your main test is whether any action of yours will go against your love for God at any point in time. Where it does then you need to withdraw from such act because the first commandment of God is that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength as in Mark 12:30 KJV.
Trials and temptations will come your way at various times but once you truly love God and pray to him regularly, you will overcome. Peter went through his trials and temptations but he overcame because the Lord has prayed for him and the same Lord is interceding for all his disciples. But you also need to be in continuous touch with the Lord Jesus and that is by fellowshipping with him regularly. Then when your faith faces a test, the grace of God will be there for you to help you overcome.
Prayer point: Father, make me an overcomer in every area of my life in the name of Jesus Christ.
Bro. Biodun Oyapero