Once again, I picture our Heavenly Father standing above the clouds, looking down at me while shaking His head and proclaiming “FINALLY”!!! As for me, my enlightened reaction is “Oops, got it, Lord.” Bottom line is I’ve been asking the wrong question. You know, it’s hard (if not impossible) for us humans to find the right answer if we’re asking the wrong question.
I’ve been looking at our present day world and thinking the solution comes from wondering if my faith is fierce enough to carry me through the mud and mire. God opened up to me that this was the wrong question. The real quandary must be “What tense is my faith?” not “Is my faith intense enough?”.
“Intense enough” implies power. “Tense” defines time – past, present or future. Without a doubt, I know my faith is deep or intense; but this, quite simply, is not sufficient. Of greatest importance is where my faith is working – past, present or future.
If my faith just rests in the past, then my life is passive. In other words, Christ’s Crucifixion saved me; I’m ok and my life is on cruise control. I can’t spread God’s word, do God’s work or help all God’s children make this world a more Christ-like place, if I’m exclusively living in this past redemptive moment. Christ’s work was at Calvary and, though of the past tense, He still lives on in this very moment of time. Shouldn’t the core and purpose of my faith do the same and be alive in the here and now?
What about the future? Suppose my faith completely clings to the gift of my future in heaven. I then ignore God’s call for me to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20 (NIV) If my faith is riveted on the future tense of “the very end of the age”, am I fulfilling Christ’s commands of “go and make” which are of the present tense? Answer is NO, I’m not.
The past (Calvary) saved me. The future (eternity in heaven) rewards me. The present (go and make) is today’s calling and purpose from God and to me. Yes, my present life is rooted in the past of Calvary, flowers in the future of heaven, but it is meant to grow Christ’s presence in our present world.
Standing convicted, I see more clearly that it matters not only if my faith is intense but, also, that it is of the right tense- the PRESENT. I am not baptized to ride out the ungodliness of today’s world on the shirttail of yesterday’s Crucifixion. Nor am I christened to passively let go of today’s spiritual tribulations and float in outer space till tomorrow, when I reach heaven. I’m commanded to take firm hold of my faith, reach down to the bottom most core of my soul, put on the armor of God, and then, this PRESENT moment “go and make disciples of all nations”.
What about you? To what, and in what tense, is God calling you???
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 