Saturday a bit more than a week ago, I was out driving on the highway near my home when the Lord spoke this to my spirit:
The just shall live by faith.
It’s a sure word, so sure in fact that it’s said four times in the Scriptures: Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. I believe God would have us remember this point!
The just are those who have placed their faith in Christ and have been made right with God. I think the phrase is less a command and more a statement of fact. People who have been given the power to become the children of God are the ones who live by faith.
Some believe that the financial meltdown now afflicting our country is the start of a great tribulation. I don’t know; it may be.
What I do know is this: The just shall live by faith.
The one who trusts money will see that money fail.
The one who trusts in cunning will see that cunning fail.
The one who trusts in elaborate disaster plans will see those plans fail.
The one who trusts in friends will see those friends fail.
The one who trusts in the ability to control life will see that control fail.
The one who trusts in self will see self fail.
Who will survive when all the foundations are rocked? The one who trusts God and God alone for all provision, all wisdom, and all security.
The just shall live by faith.
The world will scream at genuine Christians, claiming they are fools. The worldly will say, “Look, you have lost everything.” 
And we will respond, “We have Christ, therefore we have all that matters.”
Many Christians will be overtaken by fear in the days ahead. They will fear because their confidence is in their own resources, not in the Lord. The one who knows Christ cannot be shaken.
The idols we have made of our jobs, our homes, our material goods, and our investments have been assaulted. If we do not recognize this time of shaking for what it is, we will not be found ready.
But the just, who live by faith, will find a most unusual word spoken to them: “Peace.” I can hear God speaking it even now. “Peace.”
The world cannot hear that word, nor will they accept it. Their rejection comes because they are not just and they have no faith except in what moth and rust destroy.
God will raise up those Christians who are at rest. Some may even have felt an otherwordly peace descend upon their hearts in recent days. I think those will be the people who will be able to stand as lighthouses for Christ in the midst of the storm.
Though the world around us may go to pieces, God will preserve those who trust Him no matter what is going on outside the four walls of the local church.
The just shall live by faith.
Hi Dan,
Funny, I just finished meditating on Hebrew 11: 2 before checking in-“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.” The writer was speaking of the heroes of faith who knew that this world was not their home. II think this is key. I was really discouraged about some things and needed to be reminded that He’s my source of every good thing, my provision itself. Now I’m encouraged, and though I would like it to stop right there with encouragement, I’m also challenged. There is a lot I’m believing God for in my life right now, but I’m learning to accept that He may not cooperate with my personal program for emotional happiness (at least not on my terms). Over the last twelve months I’ve lost everything (except the clothes on my back and some books) and nearly everyone dear to me. I’ve been deprived of most all of the comforts I had grown attached to, and I have had to learn first hand what it means to have a “Friend who sticks closer than a brother” after everyone around has forsaken you. I am relearning lessens I had forgotten in my prosperity, and reclaiming an intimacy with God even in the midst of my loss. Though I did not willingly choose to “lose” my life in this way, once I was confronted with the reality of it, I had to choose whether or not I would yield and surrender Him and continue to trust Him and His goodness, even in the middle of my trial. I’m still struggling, and often times my flesh rebels, and my soul truly aches, and I’m tempted to sit in an ash heap like job. But I’m learning to trust him even if He slays me (and at times I thought the trials would). So I attest to what you say as being true; I am “learning” to be at rest in the midst of terrible circumstances, and this is faith. Even though (because?) all my idols are being exposed and stripped away from me, Jesus is teaching me that He really is enough, even if things never work out the way I hope. This world is not my home, nor do it’s idols profit me. He’s after our devotion. I think that this is what he we wants from us, and He’s shaking heaven and earth to produce it.
Please forgive the sermon, I hope it’s okay that I went on like this.
Peace
Amen!
First off, Ron…thanks? You’ll discern why I’m hesitant at the appreciation of your comment. (I fear your present is my future)
Dan,
Several months ago my company (newspaper) was put up for sale. A quick search will reveal newspapers are not doing well. Ours is no exception.
About this time both my kids where fully in school, so my wife (home-maker) now has the freedom (at least for a few hours a day) to focus on something other than raising our kids. It was our thought that she start looking into going back to work (counseling/therapy).
A few weeks later she was struggling with finding the right fit for her in the work place. Her parents have been pressuring her to work since they learned of the company sale. I was praying and felt like I heard the Lord say he would have to shake things up to help her.
Uh-oh.
Fast forward to last night. I was stressing out on life and this verse jumped into my mind “…and the cares of this world choked out that seed.” I started praying. I was telling the Lord about my worries and confessing my desire of money to create some safety in my situation. As I did this, I began to get relax and feel relieved.
But the worry was still not far away. While I have survived several rounds of layoffs already at the company, I have this funny feeling that if the company is bought I will be laid off. But the funny feeling is not so much about being laid off as it is sensing that this is something the Lord is planning for in my life.
As I let this thought role around in my head, I could picture not having a job and I felt free. But I was also staring into the unknown about how I would pay our mortgage, feed/cloth my kids and create a stable home life for them. Jesus’ words about seek first the kingdom have been on my mind in this regard.
While that place of freedom I see in my mind is freeing and I feel my faith rise to say that it will be good, I also know that the gulf between here and there is a tough road to go down. It will be tough for my wife, who’s parents are freaking out over my company being sold and trying to pressure her into working immediately. It will be tough on me, because I know my family and friends will freak and try to give me all the advice in the world to fix the situation.
But that place of rest and freedom I see can not accept anything but divine words. It can not accept anything but divine actions. It will be extremely tough to just sit still and wait on him. It will be tough to know when to move.
I honestly don’t know what will happen. And most likely it will be something that I’m not even seeing right now. But this post in an unsettling way confirms what has been going on.
For such a time as this, we — all who call Him Lord — have been called. For such a time as this, we must respond. Job’s words were a lifeline to me many a time over the last 30+ years; they remain true: “Yet though He slay me, still will I trust Him.” Him. Not circumstances. Him. Not the wealth we don’t have. Him. Nothing else.
Many years ago the Lord warned me as He has so many others. And now we need to trust Him so we follow closely in His footsteps, not begging Him to follow ours.
Bless you, Dan, for the good word.
ron,brian, dan
thanks, men that know seeking God’s kingdom is not made up of what’s here and now, but the walk that God calls us to, seem to be few. you ll all be in my thoughts and prayers.
God bless
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.
David,
A favorite old Navigators TMS verse. Thanks.
I am teaching through Ecclesiastes and in 4:2-3 it says that the dead are better than the living and for some it would have been better if they never were born (loose paraphrase). I asked my Sunday School class what they would say to someone, like Job, who had lost everything. What would they say to give hope? And this class of twenty and thirty-year-old’s couldn’t come up with much more than “it will get better.” Unfortunately, in this world it doesn’t always get better.
The American Dream is starting to loose its shine and I wonder what American Christians are going to do when they loose their source of hope, joy, comfort and strength. Things, not Christ, have reigned supreme and maybe this is the wake-up call we need. Unfortunately, it probably won’t last long enough to teach us the lessons we need to learn. I am relearning some things myself and I hope I will be forever changed.
Don,
People shy away from pain. They don’t like other people’s problems and mess. Because of this, they are ill-equipped when pain comes.