June 12

Day 90: Faith Sustained

We western world Christians do well with the long term faith perspective. We're pretty good at holding the confidence that someday the Lord will return, set everything right, and our world (including us) will be renewed and restored to its original design. For eternity.

However, I would propose that we same western world Christians struggle with the short term faith perspective. And lately, it's been a pronounced challenge to see any hopeful signs in the midst of so many unhopeful signs.

I just read up on CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. This is a 6 square block area in Seattle that popped up just this past week. The police are no longer welcome and have evacuated. People are squeezed for cash just to enter, where businesses are paying gangster-styled protection money, and where the self-proclaimed leader refers to himself as "warlord." And not without irony, everyone inside CHAZ seems to have a firearm.

For those of us who have lived there, we know Seattle can be ridiculous. But the obvious fear for the rest of us? That this new brand of anarchy will spread and become the new normal everywhere.

So Christians, among others are asking, "Where is God?"

The aftermath of WW 2 saw a number of European Christians wondering where God had been. Concluding He hadn't been anywhere nearby, they "left" the faith. An entire school of neo-theological thought proclaimed that God was maybe the Creator, but He wasn't involved in sustaining the world. This is a still-current worldview called "Naturalism."

According to Naturalism, God had left the world in the people's hands...and then left the building.

Not unlike 70 years ago, some church attendees today are wondering if they can sustain faith enough to see themselves this through. Will their trust in God remain intact?

Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

The context of this chapter and verse is the reality that if someone is truly redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, they will be sustained, by the results of that sacrifice, to the end.

The Apostle Paul uses what's called an "a fortiori" argument. Reasoning from the greater to the lesser. If God can do the greater (give His Son to die for His enemies), He can also do the Lesser (graciously give all things to His now adopted and reconciled children.)

What are the "good things," you ask?

Being sustained, our faith unwavering, even through the hardest and most confusing of times, is certainly one that we'd all think is good right about now.

Philippians 1:6 tells us, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day fo Jesus Christ."

The good work already began is (v5) their "partnership in the gospel." They were participating in gospel mission because they were recipients of God's gospel grace.

So Paul tells his readers that God is still there, still sustaining, and will see them (and us) through to the final day, when Jesus returns.

Even when the structures of the entire world are crumbling around us, God has already done the greater. He is actively doing the lesser.

Be encouraged.

He is sustaining the faith of those who are His.

And He will continue to do so. For His glory and our joy.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau