Come on now, Is it really faith?

  

    You know, I am constantly amazed at what gets accepted as faith, but in fact, is fear.  I saw this years ago when a family member was going for marriage counseling with a pastor known to be a faith preacher.  After a few visits, he canceled all counseling saying "I don't want to hear anything that might hinder my faith".   How strong was his faith?  I know of pastors, who when they do hospital visits, have to bind up all kinds of demons and curses before they go in the hospital door, fearing what might get on them. Is that faith?  I know of pastors who won't minister to people in the altar anymore for fear they might hear something that would hurt their faith.  Is that really faith?  

   When you begin to look for fear, it is everywhere, including our charismatic type churches.  (We just cloak it better).  So many of us are attracted to the "I can have everything I say" message is often because fear of lack drives them to it.  Around people who have embraced the confession message, it isn't unusual at all to find people full of fear - scared witless that a slip of the tongue will bring failure and ruin.  They have moved from trust to must and don't know the difference. People often go with the healing message because they fear dying and being sick. They run to the prosperity message for fear they won't have enough. They absolutely don't won't to hear the message of Paul who knew how to be abased (be in want) and how to abound (have abundance).  Legalism (relating to God by laws and rules) gains easy access to us when fear rules us. When we are lacking in trust, we are attracted to rules. Soon our hope, our justification is based on having kept those rules, not on the greatness of our God. Without trust, soon we are doing what we do because we must - for fear we won't be accepted, loved, blessed or have whatever is it we want from God. Our actions are not longer a part of a relationship with God, they become the substitute for a relationship.

   Fear does have a place in our lives. Some of us, had we not been fearful of hell, might never have gotten saved.  If you fear the lion, you won't stick your hand in its mouth.  Yet, we must recognize fear for what it is. We must govern it and not allow it to govern us.  If we don't, it becomes a spiritual force that begins to direct our lives and if we are not careful, it will steal our love, power and sound mind. It will substitute itself for faith.  It will hinder faith and we may never know what is wrong.  When fear becomes an underlying, masked, force in us, trust flies out the window.  Soon, we go from trust to must.  Soon we are keeping rules and missing grace.  Listen carefully and it won't take you long to hear someone, some leader, tell you that you must do such and such, or else.  Be careful...those are words are often the beginning of fear.