FAITH - THE GIFT

by Mare Allison

Christmas is over for another year. All the gifts have long ago been opened and their wrappings discarded. Not one of us has left his presents unopened! We all were anxious to find what lay under the wrapping paper. We have looked them over from every angle. We have checked out the size and the color, or maybe we have even read the directions.

The excitement of giving and receiving is over. All the Christmas decorations, stockings, and bows have been tucked away. We have thanked those who gave us gifts. We are no longer sitting around admiring our gifts; we are putting them to use. We are using those "just right" gifts every day. However, most of us have probably received some gift or other that we will never use. Maybe it's because it is the wrong size or color or the style is unflattering. Sometimes, though, we don't use a gift because we don't understand its workings or see its usefulness.

FAITH - A GIFT FROM GOD

Now to someone who has never received this gift, it may look pretty unsuitable. In the eyes of the world, faith is "an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence" (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). But the Bible says that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb.11:1 NIV). Faith is not an unquestioning belief, rather it is an assurance and a certainty. To the world, faith looks like a reckless leap into the dark. To the Christian whose inner being has been transformed by Jesus Christ, there is no darkness. "God is light; in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7 NIV).

For a gift to be useful, we have not only to receive and unwrap it, but it must also be tried and tested and proved in our own daily lives. Now suppose you give your friend a food processor for Christmas. You have one and you know how much of a help this machine could be to your friend in her daily food preparation. She opens your gift and receives it with appreciation. But she is a little intimidated by machines and she doesn't quite dare to try it out. So she continues to spend her time chopping vegetables by hand while dust collects on her lovely gift, which she has returned to its box.

FAITH - OPERATED BY GOD

FAITH - GOD HIMSELF THE GIFT

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NIV).

"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38 NIV).

"Jesus replied, `If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him'"(John 14:23 NIV).

God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - comes to live inside the believer. God himself is the gift. There is no other gift like this one! Because God gives us himself, the gifts we receive are manifestations or expressions of God living in us. So God is - all at once - the giver, the gift, and the operator.

FAITH IN THE FIRE

God is with us to oversee the whole process of growth. We can trust him to provide sufficient nourishment and a good growing enviornment. We can also expect him to lop off growth which will not yield fruit and to prune the branches to make them more productive.(John 15:1-8)

FAITH TESTED AND TRIED

"Where is the faith you gave me?", I asked, "Please give me faith, Lord."

"I already have," he answered, "But a gift must be unwrapped, put to use, tested, and tried." Suddenly the whole thing became clear. Is God's gift of faith to remain on my shelf, like an unsuitable Christmas gift which sits forgotten and useless? Am I willing to let God put his gift to the test in my experience? Am I willing to let him take the bit faith he has planted in me and prune and shape it into fruitfulness? Am I willing to let him be God in me?

The Bible is full of encouragement not to give up when we encounter difficulties. "Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons....God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:7,10-11 NIV)

I really shouldn't be surprised. God brought Abraham to the very point of sacrificing his son Isaac who was the very embodiment of all God's promises to him (Heb.11:17-19, Gen.22:1-19). He allowed Job to lose everything except his bitter wife and life itself (Job 1-2). He brought Daniel to a such a crisis that he landed in a den of hungry lions (Daniel 6). Then there are the countless heroes of faith, ancient and modern, who have given their lives - those who were faithful unto death. God has always tested and tried the faith he plants in his children.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him: and even though you do not see him, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:6-9 NIV)

Jesus is the author and will be the perfecter of my faith (Heb.12:2). He promises to finish what he has begun in me (Phil 1:6). So I will believe what God says. I will trust his word. I will yield myself to him and continue to trust him through whatever trials or difficulties he sees fit to allow in my life. I know that he will use them to test, purify, prune, make fruitful, and perfect the life he has planted in me in order to glorify himself.

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