{"id":5246,"date":"2011-08-29T05:09:38","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T13:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=5246"},"modified":"2011-08-29T05:48:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T13:48:24","slug":"the-unsurpassed-intimacy-of-tested-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=5246","title":{"rendered":"The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
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August\u00a029,\u00a02011<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Jesus said to her, \u2019Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?\u2019 \u2014John 11:40<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him?\"\"<\/a> Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, \u201cIt\u2019s all a lie\u201d? When you are on the mountaintop, it\u2019s easy to say, \u201cOh yes, I believe God can do it,\u201d but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42<\/a>). Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. \"\"<\/a>As soon as I say, \u201cI believe \u2019God shall supply all [my] need,\u2019 \u201d the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19<\/a>). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?<\/p>\n

Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, \u201cBlessed is he who is not offended because of Me\u201d Matthew 11:6<\/a>). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. \u201cWe have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end . . .\u201d (Hebrews 3:14<\/a>). \"\"<\/a>Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God\u2014 trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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August 29, 2011<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

Thank you Lord for reminding me that the battle inside of me is regular and normal; that the push and pull between my faith and common sense is a constant. Somehow I got the idea that once I was a fully committed or \u201cmature\u201d believer the struggle would be over. Thank you for showing me that the test of faith is in the way we life right in the middle of the struggle, and the greater the struggles, the greater opportunity for a faith based life.\u00a0 We can in fact step out of the boat and walk on the water right in the middle of the storms, when we live in faith we can step out even when \u00a0(or especially) it is storming all around us.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201dYou can find peace, hope, faith and trust right in the middle of trials. You can find Me right in the middle of the storms. Trust in Me with all your heart and I will \u2026give you the peace that passes all understanding (or common sense) right where you are. Praying to have your storms removed or trials eradicated is inconsistent with choosing to live and grow in faith. Which will you choose; to live without trails and trust your common sense, or to grow in your faith? When you choose faith you learn that the trials are regular and normal, they are a part of your life on earth. And you learn that they can be a very big part of the testing and building of your faith.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August\u00a029,\u00a02011 Jesus said to her, \u2019Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?\u2019 \u2014John 11:40 Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5246"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5259,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246\/revisions\/5259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}