An excerpt from the article: THE DIFFERENCE Walking by faith or sight
The Wonderful Benefits of the Walk of Faith
There are wonderful benefits that come to the child of God who discovers the Walk of Faith. It is not a message of wealth and prosperity, but it is a message of peace and joy. Romans 5:1-5 makes it clear that the walk of faith will bring fantastic results to the pilgrim taking this journey.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through Him we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice on the hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only this, but we glory in afflictions also, knowing that afflictions work out patience,
4 and patience works out experience, and experience works out hope.
5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God
has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.
We see that the first benefits that come from justification are peace and a standing in the glory of God. If there were no other benefits, this would be wonderful. It is clear that man has been estranged from God and now that breach has been settled and God stands ready to forgive all who come to Him in faith. The amazing thing is that God reached out to us while we were yet sinners and made this all possible.
The second benefit does not seem quite so glamorous. He says that we will have afflictions, but then Paul adds that the afflictions will produce patience (or strength) in our lives. We can consider the afflictions benefit number two and the strength then is benefit three.
Both of these lead to the next one which is experience. The believer is growing through the pathway that God has designed. No one would ask to have afflictions, but when you realize that they are going to give you strength and experience then you can see what God is doing in you. It is a great development program that is producing the image of Christ in each believer.
Benefit number five is hope that comes from experience. We learn that God is faithful and has produced strength and a constant awareness of His presence in our lives. When we have that we have hope because we have learned that God is doing what He promised and is producing His desired results in our lives.
Then we see that we have learned something about love that we did not know before and we experience it in our lives because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is too bad that so many have put an emphasis on physical things that the Spirit does for the believer. The ministry of the Holy Spirit makes us better people and because of that, we have a much greater impact on the world in which we live.
The people of this world have trouble with the children of God. They see so many different kinds of people that they have a difficult time understanding just what God wants to do in the lives of His children. They only hear the things in which Christians don’t participate and then think of these believers as people who are crusading against all these things. We need to do all we can to make them hear what we are for and not focus on what we are against. To make a clear statement of what we feel cannot be in the lives of Christians should not mean that we are carrying on crusades to keep everyone with that same commitment. No one is going to go to heaven because of the things they are against. It does not work that way. People go to heaven because of what Christ has done and nothing we can do or not do will add to what He has done.
What Christ has done becomes the foundation of our walk of faith. Faith sounds like something we are doing, but it really is not. We could have faith in any number of things that would not help us at all. If I say that I have the faith to win the lottery, will my faith win the lottery or will the lottery do its own thing. If I don’t win the lottery, then I have put my faith in the wrong process. If I have the faith to go out and take a job, and do it and work hard at it, then my faith has not done it, the job and the hard work have done it. If I place my faith in Christ to save me, and then am saved, my faith has not saved me, but Christ has saved me. If I place my faith in my good works and am lost, then it is the fact that I trusted in the wrong thing that means I am lost forever. My faith may have been just as strong as it would be when I trusted in the right thing. That means that it is important to trust in the right thing.
The Wonderful Benefits of the Walk of Faith
There are wonderful benefits that come to the child of God who discovers the Walk of Faith. It is not a message of wealth and prosperity, but it is a message of peace and joy. Romans 5:1-5 makes it clear that the walk of faith will bring fantastic results to the pilgrim taking this journey.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through Him we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice on the hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only this, but we glory in afflictions also, knowing that afflictions work out patience,
4 and patience works out experience, and experience works out hope.
5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God
has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.
We see that the first benefits that come from justification are peace and a standing in the glory of God. If there were no other benefits, this would be wonderful. It is clear that man has been estranged from God and now that breach has been settled and God stands ready to forgive all who come to Him in faith. The amazing thing is that God reached out to us while we were yet sinners and made this all possible.
The second benefit does not seem quite so glamorous. He says that we will have afflictions, but then Paul adds that the afflictions will produce patience (or strength) in our lives. We can consider the afflictions benefit number two and the strength then is benefit three.
Both of these lead to the next one which is experience. The believer is growing through the pathway that God has designed. No one would ask to have afflictions, but when you realize that they are going to give you strength and experience then you can see what God is doing in you. It is a great development program that is producing the image of Christ in each believer.
Benefit number five is hope that comes from experience. We learn that God is faithful and has produced strength and a constant awareness of His presence in our lives. When we have that we have hope because we have learned that God is doing what He promised and is producing His desired results in our lives.
Then we see that we have learned something about love that we did not know before and we experience it in our lives because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is too bad that so many have put an emphasis on physical things that the Spirit does for the believer. The ministry of the Holy Spirit makes us better people and because of that, we have a much greater impact on the world in which we live.
The people of this world have trouble with the children of God. They see so many different kinds of people that they have a difficult time understanding just what God wants to do in the lives of His children. They only hear the things in which Christians don’t participate and then think of these believers as people who are crusading against all these things. We need to do all we can to make them hear what we are for and not focus on what we are against. To make a clear statement of what we feel cannot be in the lives of Christians should not mean that we are carrying on crusades to keep everyone with that same commitment. No one is going to go to heaven because of the things they are against. It does not work that way. People go to heaven because of what Christ has done and nothing we can do or not do will add to what He has done.
What Christ has done becomes the foundation of our walk of faith. Faith sounds like something we are doing, but it really is not. We could have faith in any number of things that would not help us at all. If I say that I have the faith to win the lottery, will my faith win the lottery or will the lottery do its own thing. If I don’t win the lottery, then I have put my faith in the wrong process. If I have the faith to go out and take a job, and do it and work hard at it, then my faith has not done it, the job and the hard work have done it. If I place my faith in Christ to save me, and then am saved, my faith has not saved me, but Christ has saved me. If I place my faith in my good works and am lost, then it is the fact that I trusted in the wrong thing that means I am lost forever. My faith may have been just as strong as it would be when I trusted in the right thing. That means that it is important to trust in the right thing.
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