The Security of Faith
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the security of faith.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Security of Faith.
"My Father which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” John, Chapter 10, verse 29.
Brothers and sisters, this morning we explore the security of faith. In the material world, there is no security. No matter how much we may try to secure our selves materially, it is impossible. We are mortal and we are vulnerable to ups and downs of material life. Even though we spend lots of money and time on trying to materially secure our selves, we still fail. Bars and chains can’t protect us. But there is security in the spirit. Within our souls we can have security. And we can experience this security with our faith. Our faith tells us that we live in the heavenly Father who is all powerful, all merciful, all knowing, and all wise. The heavenly Father is living love. He is infinite, without beginning or ending. He delights in His children, and enjoys making them happy. Our Heavenly Father is a spirit.
The Father loves each and every one of us, no more, no less. He loves the righteous person as well as the sinful person. God bestows personality on all His children along with the priceless power of choice. No one may choose for us. Not even the heavenly Father will violate the free will choices of His creatures. God knows all the thoughts, desires, and needs of His children.
He is ever ready to respond to the slightest spiritual desires of our hearts. In fact His truth, beauty, goodness, and His love are ever waiting to manifest themselves in our lives. His greatest blessing to us, His command to “Be perfect even as he is perfect,” makes it possible for us to start the long, but eventful journey that leads to the person of the heavenly Father, perfected.
Faith bearing in mind that the Father loves us, and has the power to protect us, how foolish of us to needlessly worry about the temporal ups and downs which are all a part of the process of our growing up and becoming perfect. We pray with heavy hearts and tear stained eyes when some stumbling block to spiritual growth has been removed? How many times have we sat in despair because our fondest temporal hopes have crashed, unable to comprehend or unwilling to comprehend that nothing of spiritual values is ever lost. How long before we begin to think as spiritual adults and not a spiritual children who insists upon attempting to view spiritual reality through material eyes.
How long before we realize that our supreme goal in this life is spiritual, to find God, and having found him to begin the process of becoming like him, to do his divine will as Jesus taught us. Yes, we ought to pray, maintain communication with the heavenly Father so that we can learn how to do his will. Yes, we ought to praise and worship him, not because this practice will entice the Father to answer our childish prayer, but because worship leads to becoming like the One who is worshiped. Prayer leads to worship because persistent prayer reveals that God is love-truth, beauty, and goodness, and this love is ever forth coming which leads the grateful human heart to rejoice in thanksgiving, and worship for the One who provides this love.
Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt about it. The heavenly Father is ever fostering those activities that lead to spiritual growth, and thus to Him. Thus he shows mercy when the circumstances of life cause a self seeking, spiritually blinded individual to seek Him. The Father shows mercy when he allows a self seeking individual to experience the consequences of his acts. Because of human free will, such a course of action by the Father represents the only way He could save an individual from himself.
And since all things work together for good for all those who love the Father and seek to do his will, it is recognized that those so-called tragedies that befall righteous persons are blessings in that they allow opportunity for greater spiritual growth, and thus accelerate the perfection process. All of these experiences cause us to search for meaning, and out of meaning comes value, even the supreme value-God. Brothers and sisters, I suppose that must of us are immature in our interpretations of life’s events. “There is a way that seems right to man, but the way leads to death.” The way of God no matter how hard to understand leads to life-eternal life.
Let us refrain from asking the Father to change the way things are, but rather let us ask Him for growth and maturity so that we may comprehend the goodness concealed in these experiences that appear to cause us so much distress. Let us seek his will. Let us pray to become a truer transmitter of His love. Let us seek out our brothers and sisters who are in need. Let us learn to know and love them, for in the process we shall be learning to know and to love the Father. The greater our capacity and ability to love and know our brothers and sisters, the greater is our capacity and ability to know and love God.
Let us not harbor hate and resentment in our hearts, nor anger or bitterness. Let us refuse to allow grief, sorrow, guilt, and remorse to control our spiritual attitude, but rather let these bench marks of immaturity fall behind us as we are swallowed up in the joy of exhilarating service, and transforming worship.
This concludes today's message on the security of faith. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Security of Faith
