Monday Morning 4/30/2012

Is your love for God greater than your love for what people think about you?

Is your obedience to God greater than your common sense?

Do you care more about making disciples than you care about making a good first impression?

Acts Chapter 12 opens with King Herod Agrippa of Rome persecuting believers. He orders the death of John’s brother James and has Peter arrested. Just to make himself look good. People came together and prayed. Soemthing more than a miracle happened. Peter shows up, Herod dies, and the story cannot stay quiet. People saw the results of their work. Verse 24 says that many new believers were added. New disciples made to tell other disciples.

 
And just like Acts 12, the Holy Spirit shows up at the front door of the church, and some don’t want to believe what has happened.

Faith makes things happen.
Faith makes -
- Heaven real
- God Real
- Life really exciting.

But we can’t have it both ways.
If we are going to act in faith, we must believe something is going to happen. We must expect a miracle to happen.

But that’s not easy, is it?

Are you getting the picture yet?

We need Jesus to INCREASE OUR FAITH to act, to do something, to Go.
We really don’t have much faith do we?

We need God to help us.

Let’s face the real problem. Let’s be honest.  
We say we have “real” faith, but when it comes time to do something that involves God’s church, the faith is not there, right?

Sometimes we have more faith:
- In our car starting than we have in God answering our prayer.
- In our best friend helping us out than we do in Jesus making the difference for us.
- In getting a weekly paycheck to pay our bills than we do in bringing offerings to God.
- In others telling us what’s best for us than we do in the God that created us and gives us our every breath.

This is not criticism. This is the way we are programmed to act.

We need GOD to INCREASE OUR FAITH to ACT!

Jesus has made us lots of promises we need to have faith in. Here’s one: “ I am with you until the end of the age.”

Right about now someone may be thinking to themselves, “Hmm, I need to start working on this”

No, my friends, that’s not how it works.
You can’t buy faith, and you can’t build it up on your own.

You see God is God and does not need to prove Himself to anyone, however, he is eager to show us what he can do and will do if we act in faith and reach out beyond ourselves. All we need to do is to go to Him in faith, then watch Him work.

Have you ever needed an all-important “right now” kind of blessing? Perhaps it’s a blessing that He and only He can give? Maybe it’something more than a miracle? And when He gave that blessing to you, you knew that regardless of what anybody thought of you, one thing you really know is that God cares so much for you that while He was blessing others, He took time out to bless you as well.

The prophet Isaiah says, “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4 NLT). Wise believers keep going with the faith to act knowing God is in the details.

Faith calls believers to wait. First, God may be preparing us to receive His blessings. Perhaps we need new skills or greater maturity. Sometimes people require fresh spiritual insight before they can understand what God is doing.

Second, God is teaching us to have confidence in Him. How would believers ever learn faith if God immediately fulfilled their every request? God teaches us to say two words: "Trust Me."

Last, God calls us to reach beyond ourselves into the community. We have no idea whether God is acting or not. But if we walk by faith and not by sight, God will be victorious. But be assured that God knows every situation and gives us what we need every time at the right time.

Waiting is rarely easy, particularly in this instant-everything world. The people in the house did not know what God was doing with Peter. They had to trust God with the details. Be patient while the Lord works out details. His best is on the way.