How is it possible that the son of a famous Christian author commits suicide and the body guard of a renowned woman preacher commits murder? You’d think the people closest to them would be well protected. So why do these horrible things happen?
Because faith needs to be a personal thing. Even if someone receives healing or deliverance from devil spirits or miraculous answers to prayer, he or she won’t be able to maintain it for very long without developing his or her own personal faith.
We are told in Galatians 6:4 to bear one another’s burdens and we do that joyously without griping. But Paul goes on to say in verse 5, “Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.” No one can continue to do our believing for us. We have to develop it by our own selves.
When we got born again we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and that’s great. But didn’t we also say we were giving up the lordship we had over our lives and make Him Lord instead? We decided we didn’t do the best job as our own lord, right? We sometimes tend to forget about that part. Remember Romans 10:9&10? The Bible says Jesus is THE Lord, the promised Messiah. But it also says He is to be OUR Lord. That makes it personal!
When the disciples talked to Him they called Him, “Lord.” (See John 21:20.) Should we do any less? Romans 8:39 tells us nothing should be able to “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus OUR Lord.”
Do we still go to our Lord Jesus Christ with real personal trust and faith and expectation on a daily basis? Do we ask Him as our Lord, what His assignment is for us today, what He’d like for us to read or do for the day, so He can help us stay on top for the next few hours? Or are we slipping a little in this category and relying more on other people’s faith to keep us up?
Don’t get me wrong, preachers and others can inspire us and minister healing and deliverance and miracles, and we need that. But it’s time to dig deep and find our own faith inside of ourselves too. Our challenges come daily and we need to have daily faith to meet those challenges and overcome them. Healings, deliverances, and answers to prayer need to be maintained. Other people can’t do that for us. We have to do it.
We can build our personal faith by renewing our vow to say and practice Jesus as our personal Lord on a daily basis.
Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily [what I accomplished on the cross for you], and follow me” (Luke 9:23). We are to deny the old person we used to be, receive all that He did for us on the cross and make it a daily thing to follow Him.
It wasn’t the fault of the famous Christian author that his son committed suicide. Nor was it the fault of the Christian woman preacher that her body guard committed murder. Those kinds of devil spirits don’t just come overnight. They are the result of days on end without taking faith personally, without consciously making Jesus Lord each day. If the son or the body guard had done that, the suicide and the murder spirits would not have been able to penetrate.
Other people’s prayers, ministering and faith can maintain us for awhile, but at some point, for consistent and lasting victory, we have to find our own faith in the Lord.
This past August my cousins renewed their vows after 25 years of marriage. We can renew our vows daily, telling Jesus Christ He’s our Lord today and following Him. No suicide or murder for us because we have made faith a personal daily thing.
Don’t just talk to God; Call on Jesus. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” Rev 3:20.
Love, Carolyn
PS: My book WINGS: A Journey in Faith would be a great Christmas gift. The paperback as well as the e-book version are available on-line from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It’s a wonderful workbook with 52 chapters (one for each week of the year) and each with a few questions at the end for self reflection. An added bonus is the section in the back for special holidays. Enjoy!
Here’s the Amazon link:
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