Sunday, February 19, 2012

Faith In The Face Of Loss

It's revival time at Bronx Bethany!

Today's guest speaker, Reverend Gabriel Salguero, spoke on the importance of attaining to mature faith. We have been called to reflect on Biblical examples of mature faith:

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (see Daniel 1:6): The three Hebrew boys who expressed faith in God's power to deliver, then went a step further and proclaimed that their loyalty to God was not dependent on whether He rescued them.

Stephen (Acts 7): In his final moments, Stephen's faith caused him to see beyond the stoning and experience an open heaven. In seeing Jesus, Stephen was empowered to forgive the men who were killing him.

The Shunammite woman (Second Kings 4): Though her son had died in her arms, her response was to say "it is well". She demonstrated a faith that was not dependent on whether her son was revived.

Job (Job 1 and 2): Job's faith and integrity was such that God Himself pointed out Job: "Have you considered my servant Job?" In the face of losing everything, his response was to bless the Lord just as he had when his resources seemed endless.

How about you? As Pastor Sam said during the altar call (and I paraphrase here): Are you in love with God no matter what happens, or do you need Him to keep giving you lollipops?

No comments:

Post a Comment