The shield of faith
Jamie Featherby 25th Feb '07
Ephesians 6 v 16
For context, read Ephesians 6 v 10 & 11 & 16
Faith is about seeing things through God's eyes, what's going on around us, not through our eyes but his.
How does Satan attack our faith? He doesn't knock at the door and tell us what he's about to do. Instead he attacks us in numerous ways, often through the circumstances in our lives.
The world around us
There's not much to be cheerful about around us, many people are struggling with post-modernity, where there is no truth therefore no values. Our society is obsessed with rights, has got things out of balance.
Jamie went to see an exhibition in the Tate Modern about the 20th Century and it brought home to him how depressing the 20th Century was. What does it say about society that a urinal or a pile of dung merit a place in the Tate Modern. It is our society saying this has value, as much value as a Raphael or a Turner.
Big Brother on the TV celebrates ordinary and sometimes sub-ordinary people, it celebrates that anybody has worth, a celebration of lowness.
Politicians are despairing about what to do about the shootings in
South London recently.
The recent UN survey about well being of children, in which the
came bottom in the developed world. Along with the expected statistics about teenage pregnancy and unemployment was a startling statistic about how our youngsters do not feel supported by their friends, which is extraordinary when they spend so much time chatting on e-mail and facebook etc.
Jamie showed us the book 'Utopian Dreams - in search of a good life'. The author recognised that he couldn't keep living in a consumer, postmodern, commitment-shy society, and travelled to visit other communities, looking for the utopian dream of a better life.
The church is marginalised in society. We have had unanswered prayers about healing or revival. Should we be depressed or lack faith?
Image of champagne cork floating on a large sea, it is often on the way down a wave or on the way up a wave, but hardly ever at the top of a wave. That’s like us, our perspective of what’s going on is limited, especially if we spend too much time trying to read the signals in society around us.
Five things we can do to build our faith:-
1) Recognise that we are part of a large story.
Post modernity would like to deny that. We know the beginning of the story, roughly: creation, Satan’s fall, Gods purpose for the Earth. Jesus' coming dramatically alters the plot. We know what the ending will be, roughly, but not sure how we're going to get there: Jesus will come, there will be a new heaven & a new earth. We are somewhere along the story, we are characters with significance & purpose. The scriptwriter has already written the plot, we know God is a God of love, that he is with us throughout, at the end he will be victorious. It's a community story, bigger than just me. Sense of inevitability about the ending, that's something we can put our faith in.
Jamie told us about a little stream on the beach, which always makes its way down to the sea, no matter what. Jamie used to put in little mounds for the water to go round, and even if bully boys tried to dam the stream it always broke through. God wants us to play on the beach, and to play our part in building mounds, but the inevitability of the story goes on.
2) Have a heart of thankfulness.
God’s economy has odd equations in it, one of them is that a heart of thankfulness leads to a heart of faith. Develp a heart of thankfulness in whatever situation we find ourselves.
3) Have an attitude of trust.
God does some of the gardening, as we do some of it too, faith is like that, it's a gift of God and we have to respond. Trust is the basis on which I make decisions in life, I am prepared to trust that God is there. It's the toolkit like tools to do the gardening, it's a tool we use to run our lives, to tackle the unexpected.
4) Obedience.
Sometimes we think obedience is a black & white thing at times of choices. Instead it is a continual process, everyday & constant. Faith comes from picking up the right tools constantly to get us through life. It’s to do with the way we are asked to live our lives, to be counter-cultural. The call to be obedient and to use the right tools is pretty constant.
5) Have our eye on the final prize that awaits each of us.
There was a Latin motto written in gold letters a metre high in the school chapel where Jamie went. He saw it every day for 5 years. It’s a quote from Rev 2 v 10 ‘Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life’. Jamie has found this to be comforting, it's a verse he would stake his life on. It's an absolute.
Pray that God would help you in one or more of these areas.
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