PSALM 119:140 – Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.
THEME OF THE DAY. TRIED AND FOUND SUFFICIENT. Christians live by promises, not just believed, but acted upon. That is called faith. We believe God’s Person and Word. We exercise living faith in His trustworthy being and reliable promises. Let me encourage each of us to do a study of how faith is displayed in the Gospels. It is fascinating to see how many times Jesus recognizes faith by active reliance upon His Person and His Word, not mere belief in facts of Him. Here are two examples.
First the centurion who exercised great faith by simply placing himself completely under the authority of Jesus’ Person and Word – “When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith” (Matthew 8:5-10).
The other account is the woman with a lifelong blood disease who sought out Jesus to touch Him – “And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well” (Matthew 9:20-22).
In both cases, Jesus recognizes their actions, not just their words, affirming the presence of true faith in Him. Neither the centurion or the woman waited to “feel something” before they acted. Neither of them sat around waiting for God to do something in them or give them a sign before they acted.
There are two important lessons to learn from the centurion and the woman that connect us to today’s scripture. First, true faith is not simply believing the Word of God. True belief validates itself by acts of trust in the object of belief. Just to profess belief doesn’t mean the presence of true belief. The Apostle James tells us, “Even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19). The centurion and woman cast themselves upon Jesus, publicly, and without waiting for God to do something first. They submitted themselves, actually abandoned themselves to Jesus. True faith says, “I trust You and Your Word, if both fail, I have no other place to go.”
The second lesson we learn from the centurion is implied, but clearly present. He believed Jesus had the power to meet his need and fulfill his request simply by His Word. And that takes us to today’s scripture. What are we basing our entire eternity on? God’s promise. What are we to lean upon each day of our lives on earth for strength and direction? God’s promises. How do we do that? By acting on them. For instance, when we are afraid and feel fear raising its ugly head wanting to paralyze us spiritually, we run to the promise of the Lord, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). We “talk down” fear by the power of God’s promise. When we do this; when we “act” upon a promise of God, we will be able to say like the Psalmist, “Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it”.
God has given us great and precious promises to rest upon for all we need now and forever, but it is not a rest of passivity but of active reliance as we take the knowing of God’s promises and exercise confident faith in them.
PRAYER: “Father, I so praise You for Your promises that never fail.”
QUOTE: “God’s Word is not only true, but trustworthy. We may trust them for now and all eternity.”