seeing through the eyes of faith 2-17-08

Today my Bible study had a topic that was different than I had ever studied before. The Lord took me to Romans 12 and said that verses there showed us how to think about ourselves. Here is what I saw in verses 3-6:
we’re to think sober-mindedly
according to faith
and see ourselves as containing gifts from God, to be used by faith

I also saw how we are not to think about ourselves
High-minded

All this thinking, good or bad, right or wrong, takes place in our minds. Most of us believe that being “high-minded” means we are being proud. But then, when our enemy wants to stop from serving God, he accuses us of being proud or of serving God from a wrong motive. The Holy Spirit brought a verse to my mind concerning the accusations of our enemy against us. It is 2 Cor 10:3-5. In these verses we learn about the weapons against our enemy. They stop
Arguments against the truth
Pretensions that set themselves up (exalt themselves) against the knowledge of God

In the beginning of this lesson I had learned to look at myself through the eyes of faith, as one who should serve the Lord by using the gifts He has given me. The scriptures later on in Romans 12 bear witness to this truth. Therefore, the accusations that come to my mind, and to all of our minds, that we are being pre-eminent, or proud to use our gifts, are weapons of our enemy. Our weapons are mightier. We can pull down his strongholds by standing on the truth; God wants us to walk in faith and use the gifts He has given us. It is satan’s thoughts that are high-minded, exalting themselves against the knowledge of God and arguing against the truth.

Once we learn how to look at ourselves through the eyes of faith, we can see how the enemy has tried to make us ineffectual in our walk with Jesus. But even recognizing our enemy’s weapons does not mean that we will serve the Lord in our fullest. We have a desire to be safe that can also keep us ineffective in our service to the Lord. Safe from regret, safe from the humility of making mistakes. In the Churches there is a greater emphasis on coming under the leadership of “safe” people and emanating their “safe” ways than ever before. And to coincide with this desire for safety, there is a growing fear of being wrong, and of missing God’s will for our lives.

At the beginning of Roman’s 12 are the famous verses about laying our lives down as a living sacrifice, pleasing and acceptable to God. This is our spiritual sacrifice. If we do not conform to the world or follow its ways, we can become transformed by the renewing of our minds and know God’s will. This is the greatest safety in all our endeavors to being safe; laying down our lives to God while we are alive.

But how do we pull down the fear that would keep us from walking forward in service to God . . . that great fear of humiliation and regret? The Lord had me look at some people who had regrets, and asked me what caused their regrets. Here is what I found:
The man who buried his talent (Mt 25:30)
Without faith (Mt 8:12)
Not wearing the wedding garment (Mt 22:11-14)
Those whom the Lord considers dogs, or who practice magic arts, sexually immoral, idolaters, and everyone that loves and practices falsehood (Rev 22:15)

They weren’t full of regret from serving the Lord and using the gifts He gave them. They had regrets from not serving the Lord, not being ready for Him, and from not obeying Him. Though this is not a complete list, I believe the Lord had me look at these things because the fear of regret and humiliation does not save us from regret or from humiliation. Serving God and combating the false counsel of our accuser saves us from regret and humiliation.

What might be the opposite of regret? Confidence. Hebrews 10:35-39 shows that our confidence will cause us to do God’s will, and we will be rewarded for doing it. God has no pleasure when we shrink back, not walking in faith. I see that it is faith that completes the circle. If we see through the eyes of faith that God’s plan for our lives is to serve with the gifts He gave us, we will be rewarded. And if we have laid our lives down to Him, we will know His will and walk in it. Let us pull down those thoughts that accuse us, that truly exalt themselves against the truth. Then we will be effective in serving the Lord. Amen