Congratulations to our winner Kalona Pence!!
The book of Romans is jam packed with truth about God’s grace, our sinfulness, and the importance of faith. This week, Todd focused on Romans 3-4 and the importance of having faith that God will cover our sin.
“We must have faith that God will save because we cannot save ourselves. The law can show us where we have failed, but cannot help us change that. Imagine, if you will a married couple, we’ll call them Tom and Jane. If Tom lies to Jane one time, and then tells her the truth one time, should she trust him? No! (Or as Paul would say, “By no means!”) Tom has only told the truth 50% of the time. He is a liar and not to be trusted. What if Tom told one lie and then told the truth 10 times? Better but still very untrustworthy. 1 out of 10, still a liar. What if he told the truth 100 times? 1000 times? 1,000,000 times? Well, a million is a lot. We’d probably trust him then. But does the million times change the fact that he lied? No. By lying one time, he is by definition a liar, and there is nothing he can do to change that. He may become more trustworthy, but he cannot change the lie.
We are by definition sinners. We have fallen short of the goal of perfection that God has set. And we now, by faith, believe that God will act on our behalf. We trust that He will do the one thing we cannot; He will change who we are. He will erase the lie. He will place the lie on His Son Jesus at the cross and condemn it. God makes us righteous, not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done. And we believe.”
I love Todd’s example of the married couple. I have only been married for a little over a month, but I can already see the amazing importance of grace in marriage…and the faith you have to have in God in order to extend grace to someone else. Sometimes it takes even more faith in God to accept his grace for yourself!
Tell us about a time when you had faith for a chance to win this week’s Todd Agnew CD Library!
There are times in all of our lives where we doubt (even for a moment) that God isn't fully "for" us. That maybe when they said he is ALWAYS good, that they meant mostly good. Or that when they say he loves us ALL the time, that maybe they meant to say that he loves us most of the time....4 years ago, almost to the day I gave up the relationship that I had with my earthly father. I knew that the relationship wasn't safe for me any longer. At that time, I started to question God. I didn't understand how if he's good ALL the time, why he'd let so many bad things happen. But you know what? I decided to let it go. I decided to trust that he knew what he was doing. I didn't fully believe it at the time, but I knew that in time I'd look back and see that He was there. So I chose to believe that he knew what he was doing. It didn't make things better, but it gave me a peach that I otherwise wouldn't have had. Now, 4 years later, I'm glad to stand up and say--"I wouldn't change anything that happened. I wouldn't know the people I know, I wouldn't have the relationships that I have, and I most certainly wouldn't be the person that I am today." It was hard, and it didn't feel good at the time, but now I'm at the day that I always chose to believe I'd eventually come to. The day where I say "God, you really did know what you were doing".
My older brother lives with his mom. He was a big part of my preteen/early teen life, but then stopped coming to church; the only place I was able to see him. For the past couple years, I kept asking God why He let my brother fall away from Him. After a couple months, I didn't hear from my brother anymore. Then I found out a really good friend of mine did drugs at the age of 17. I became angry and started doing things I shouldn't have done. But through the advice of my youth pastor's wife and a youth leader, I was able to start letting both of them go, and start trusting God to bring them both back to church and me in His timing. Now, I have completely given the situation to God, and am praying and waiting to see both of them in church one day.
I have not had a whole lot of times when I would say that I had to have a lot of faith, I am 19 years old and have not had a whole lot of hardship in my life. But one thing that has taken quite a bit of faith is college payments. This summer, I had the opportunity to travel and lead worship at revival services. I did this all summer instead of getting a job to pay my school bills. Honestly, I didn't want to take the chance of not being able to return to school this fall. But I felt like God was calling me to lead others in worshiping Him. It took quite a bit of faith to even attempt leading worship. I am not a very talented singer, or guitar player. But every night before I went on stage to lead worship, I spent time praying and asking God to give me strength. And every night, He came through and my summer went great. Now that the summer is over and I have a rather large school bill to pay, I am looking back and thanking God for the opportunity that He has given me. I received an email a few days ago stating that a check would be mailed to me which will cover more than the bill that I currently owe. Stay faithful, and God will ALWAYS provide.