June.01.01: Light For The Day - "Right Kind Of Faith?"

 

You don't know what faith you have until it is tested.

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  -- Psalm 26:2 (NIV)

  "Test me, O LORD, and try me,
   examine my heart and my mind."
                  

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Do I Have The Right Kind of Faith?

 

What makes faith right?
With all the voices calling for us to trust their
messages, how can we know which one to listen to?

 

The rightness or wrongness of faith is determined
by its object--by what you believe in.   Right faith is
not just a warm secure feeling, nor is it a blind, wild,
irrational hope. The rightness of faith is determined
by its object!   Your faith is right if you put your
trust in the right thing.

 

People will always believe in something.  Yet they
often put their faith in the wrong thing.  The wrong
kind of faith is faith that is resting on man. This is
wrong because man is finite in his understanding,
limited in his power, and sinful by nature.

 

Faith in Humanism:

 

Humanism rests on the conviction that man's
intellect can bring solutions to all his problems
and answers to all his questions.  It says man
needs no outside help. He has in himself all the
resources he needs.

 

Faith in Escapism:

 

This is the wrong belief that we can find peace
and solace in the make-believe world of alcohol
and drugs. Increasing numbers of people are
using artificial means to escape the reality of life
and to seek comfort in an unreal world.

 

Faith in Mysticism:

 

Mysticism speaks of a supreme power rather than
a supreme being. The belief is that this supreme
power is part of everything and in everything,
including people. Its followers pray and chant to
put themselves into harmony with this supreme
power.

 

Faith in Sacramentalism:

 

Some people believe that by participating in a
series of religious rituals they receive God's grace.
The participants think they gain God's favor by
observing them.

 

Faith in Legalism:

 

Many people have a false faith in their own good
works.  People like to think they can please God
by their own efforts. Some think that if they obey
a long list of do's and don'ts they will impress
God. Legalism is a religion of human achievement.
It is man trying to earn salvation by something
he does.

 
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++ These faiths, which originate in man, depend on
man, and end with man, are contrary to the teaching
of the Bible. It is in God's revealed Word that we
can discover the right object of faith--Jesus Christ.

 

If your faith is in anything other than Christ, your
faith is inadequate. It is the wrong kind of faith.

 

 -- Campus Journal

 

- Hebrew 12:2 (NIV)

  "Let us fix out eyes on Jesus,
   the author and perfecter of our faith, ..."
       
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  --  Isaiah 45:22 (RSV)

  "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!
   For I am God, and there is no other."