The Results of Faith That We Often Overlook

The Results of Faith That We Often Overlook

The process shows how mature we are as Christians

Photo by Alex Moliski on Unsplash

Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. (2 Thessalonians 1:4, NIV).

Maturity is keeping the truth about God as the center of your life, no matter what is happening.

We all face trials and temptations. Many times, these things are so senseless and disconnected from you that we can rightly say they were undeserved.

Someone who was a convicted felon gets hit by a car, and we are like, “That’s some good karma!” But the guy who is working two jobs to put his kids through life gets terminally ill, and we say it’s unfair.

And you are right: some people had consequences coming to them, and some didn’t. But it is the nature of life, and under these conditions, we must still uphold the uncompromising truth about God and His love in a world that seems to be bent on proving both are nonexistent.

As Christians, we have the responsibility to hold God true and live His values. We bring change while working through our own imperfections, the very things that some would say prove the opposite of what we profess.

Living a life worth boasting about

Every believer in the Bible who had serious wealth never boasted about it. There was more hype about what they gave away than what they received. That’s how humble they were.

But somehow the value system seems to have changed. What believers glorified then now seems to be taking the back seat. These days, men and women of faith are glorified for their results rather than their process.

Abraham had a child after so many years.

The faith of Abraham is powerful!

But what God loved about Abraham was not the end but the process. What God valued about Abraham was his attitude when he didn’t have what he was hoping for. Abraham had no children but never hesitated to look after others and put their needs first.

For example, Abraham allowed Lot to choose first from the land. Then the raiding armies captured Lot, and Abraham fought to rescue him. And finally, Abraham bargained with God when God was about to destroy Lot’s city. He also prayed for the barren in Gerar when Abimelech took Sarah to be his wife, and God confronted Abimelech. Such was the outward-focused nature of Abraham’s Faith.

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6, NIV)

Abraham believed in signs that we would call weird. What do the stars in the sky have to do with having children? Or the sand on the seashore? But if God said it, then it must be true.

Another beautiful thing about Abraham’s story was what he did when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. You could see that having Isaac didn’t change his view about God. The result of his faith didn’t change his attitude towards God.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17 — 19, NIV)

You could still see the hunger for God that had been there throughout Sarah’s barrenness. That is worth boasting about. That is the true result of faith — who you become as you pursue God.

The results that our mouths water over are temporary. The cars, the houses, the rent, the opportunities for career growth, and all the advantages we hope to receive will come and go. But who we are is what people will remember. Who we are is reflected in what people have benefited from our existence. That is what God will reward.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)

If we must glean another definition of faith from Hebrews 11:6, it will be that faith is believing that God exists and passionately pursuing Him above everything else. It means that faith is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. It doesn’t stop when we get what we were trusting God to provide. It’s truly a posture of the heart towards God. A heart that constantly yearns for what God is prioritizing now and trying to get in on His bandwagon. A heart after His heart.

When what you’ve hoped for finally happens

At this point, the next immediate test is whether the result has changed you. Are you still grounded in your Christian faith? Do you still have the same thoughts about sin and what pleases God?

That’s what God boasts about. He loves people who are grounded in Him, and no blessing makes them change their relationship with Him. If anything, they love Him so much more. God called Abraham His friend. Then see what He said about Moses.

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. (Exodus 33:11, NIV)

He spoke to Moses like a friend. Moses performed the plagues, then parted the Red Sea. And after performing all of that, God tells Moses He will destroy the Israelites, but Moses bows down to beg for them. The miracles didn’t douse His hunger for God.

Then look at Joshua, who, rather than go back with Moses to the camp, stayed in the holy tent! No wonder God chose him to succeed Moses.

Maturity as a Christian is not only how you act when things happen that contradict your hope. It’s also how you act when you receive what you have hoped for all these years, and it doesn’t make you proud.

Are you still willing to serve when you’ve received all you ever sought from God? That is a sign of a mature Christian. They pursue God as though what they sought Him for never even mattered. In the end, character is gold, and it is the result of faith that truly matters to God.

Olugbenga is passionate about God and loves to communicate biblical truth in simple but powerful ways. Check out his books on Amazon.

Amazon.com: Olugbenga Ojuroye: books, biography, latest update.

Illustration by the author.