THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH!
DO 1704
Trust Him Anyhow!--Victory over Seeming Defeat!
12/83
1. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO USE KING DAVID OF THE BIBLE AS THEIR EXCUSE FOR BEING BAD. Other people are encouraged by his mistakes & faults & think, "If even he could make it, I sure can make it. If God loved him & can save him, why, He surely could save me!"
2. I THINK IF NEARLY EVERY WOMAN HAD A PERFECT DELIVERY & BIRTH, & nearly everybody came through painlessly & victoriously, a woman who had a hard time would feel terribly condemned & guilty, like, "What's the matter with me? I must be very bad or something!"
3. (MARIA: ONE FAMILY COUPLE INSISTED ON NATURAL CHILDBIRTH WHEN THE DOCTOR TOLD THEM THEY SHOULD HAVE A CAESAREAN, & THEY LOST THE BABY!) You know, a lot of it is the motive behind their insistence. My Mother used to discuss this, about how some people insisted on trusting the Lord because they knew they should & therefore in spiritual pride they refused help even when they really didn't have the faith to trust the Lord. They really didn't have the faith but they thought they were supposed to do it anyhow. (Maria: Like a pride trip.)
4. YOU'VE EITHER GOT IT OR YOU HAVEN'T GOT IT, THAT'S ALL, & IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT IT, YOU'D BETTER GO TO THE HOSPITAL & THE DOCTOR! (Maria: Maybe the Lord uses that sometimes & even makes it necessary for you to be under the doctor's care or have an operation or a Caesarean or whatever to humble you.) To humble your spiritual pride, yes. To give you a little more sympathy for other people who haven't got the faith & have a hard time having faith, who might have a hard time trusting the Lord.
5. THERE IS NO WORSE PRIDE THAN SELF-RIGHTEOUS RELIGIOUS PRIDE!--The self-righteous, Pharisaical, proud, religious person who thanks God he's not as other men or as other women & looks down on them because they don't have as much faith as he has & they didn't do this or they didn't do that! It causes some people to have absolutely no sympathy for the poor guys who haven't got it & can't make it, etc.
6. WELL, IT'S AS THEY SAY, IT TAKES ALL KINDS, & there are all kinds of people, all kinds of faith & all kinds of strengths & all kinds of weaknesses. It takes all kinds to make a World & it takes all kinds to make our Family too. One guy said to the Lord, "I believe, help Thou mine unbelief." (Mk.9:24)
7. APPARENTLY THE LORD CAN'T TRUST YOU WITH A HIGH & MIGHTY JOB OR A HIGH & MIGHTY TESTIMONY, or a high & mighty responsibility, something that might really lift you up in pride, until He has really humbled you & broken you so that you know it's the Lord & you give God all the glory & all the credit & it doesn't go to your head & make you proud!--Which is why the New Testament says you're not to give a novice any position of great responsibility or leadership lest he be lifted up in pride & fall under the condemnation of the Devil. (1Tim.3:6)
8. SO IN ORDER TO HAVE A POSITION OF REAL LEADERSHIP IN THE LORD, SOMETIMES THE LORD HAS TO REALLY HUMBLE YOU & BREAK YOU, because the Devil really tempts you with that sort of thing to make you get high & lifted up, especially if you accept the praise of men & you don't remind them it's the Lord.
9. MOST PEOPLE KNOW THEY'RE A MESS! And to know that some of their leaders are not perfect either is sure comforting! If anything, my confessions (No.1406) have aroused more thanks & gratitude & people have gone on raving & raving about some of the worst Letters I think I ever wrote about some of the worst things I ever did! My defeats have encouraged them almost more than my successes! My failures & my defeats have been more encouraging to them in some ways than my victories, because it showed that I was also human & that I was just as fallible & just as weak & just as bad & had just as many problems as they had, but praise the Lord, I somehow made it anyhow, the Lord pulled me through anyway. So they figured, "There must be some hope for me. Surely the Lord will somehow have mercy on me & somehow see me through!"
10. IT'S ENCOURAGING TO PEOPLE TO SEE THAT YOU'RE NOT PERFECT, even their leaders are not perfect, they're human. Look at Moses! Look at King David! Look at Joseph! I mean there is just one long string of them in the Bible & even in church history. They were all men.--Men of faith, but all of them had feet of clay & all of them made mistakes & the Lord had to show that they were men & flesh & blood & just as weak as we are & made mistakes like we do, & it was all the Lord! And it had to be all the Lord, for they became shining examples--not of their own greatness but of their utter dependence on the Lord.
11. JUST LIKE SALVATION, IT'S "NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD!" (Eph.2:8,9) "Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God" (Rom.10:17), but we're saved by grace through faith. And it's not of ourselves, lest any man should boast, it's the gift of God! And once in awhile He has to kind of rub our noses in it & humble our pride & show everybody how weak & fleshly we are.
12. THAT'S THE CRUX OF THE MATTER!: EVERYBODY IS BAD. EVERYBODY DESERVES SPANKINGS & PUNISHMENTS. We're all sinners, we've all come short of the glory of God! (Rom.3:23) That isn't what God blames you for. He blames you for not calling on Him to help you & for not repenting, not letting Him change you, not letting Him do it. You can't do it yourself. You just have to turn your life, your mind, your heart & everything over to the Lord & let Him do it. When people finally get to that point where they just give up & let go & let God, then God has a chance to step in & do it, because He wants to do it, He wants to show you that you can't do it & He wants the glory.
13. THE TROUBLE IS, SOME PEOPLE STILL WON'T ADMIT THAT & STILL DON'T REPENT, STILL REBEL AGAINST THE LORD, STILL ARE LIFTED UP IN PRIDE LIKE THE DEVIL & still going on in their own rebellious, stubborn, willful way in defiance of God, like Satan. Some people really have to go through a lot before they get humbled & some people it seems never get the point & they never get humbled & they never say, "Uncle!" They never cry out to God for deliverance. They never admit that they can't make it. They just never ever give up trying to do it their way, never ever say "Uncle!" & "Lord, You win. I quit!"
14. WHO COULD BE A BETTER DANDY BAD EXAMPLE THAN SATAN HIMSELF! He's an example of those who never quit & never give up, at least haven't yet & for thousands of years. Some people apparently won't even repent until God really throws them in the fire, burns up all their self-works & all their self-righteousness & all their pride & all their iniquity!
15. "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE!" "FOR BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH & that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." (Rom.3:10; Eph.2:8,9) And that principle is true of everything, including healing & everything else! It's gotta be the Lord & He wants to do it & He wants to get the credit for it & the glory.
16. I'M SURE THE LORD KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING. I'VE HAD SOME THINGS HAPPEN TO ME I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND, EXCEPT I KNOW THEY KEPT ME HUMBLE & THEY WORKED OUT HIS PLAN. When you're really willing to resign yourself to the will of God, whatever it may be, whether you think it's good or bad, the Lord lets you go through some of those tests sometimes, even to let you think He's being a little too hard on you! Job finally got the point that his sin was self-righteousness. His sin was self-perfection. His sin was that he thought he didn't have any sin, & he couldn't understand why God was doing all this to him.
17. LIKE DEAR OLD DR. MITCHELL USED TO SAY, "GOD DOES SOME THINGS TO US TO MAKE US HUMBLE & SOMETIMES HE REPEATS THEM OR DOES OTHER THINGS TO US TO SEE IF WE'RE STILL HUMBLE!" It's sort of God's intolerable compliment. One thing for sure, God knows what He's doing, so even if you don't understand it & you don't know what He's doing, He does, so you just have to wrap it up in a little bundle of faith & tuck it away till some day He reveals why.
18. HE KNOWS HOW TO KEEP YOU IN LINE, KEEP YOU IN CHECK SO YOU DON'T GET THE BIG HEAD & don't get too puffed up & too self-confident, have too great a sense of false security! The Lord really knows how to keep you in line, keep you in shape, toeing the mark so you won't miss the mark! So, praise the Lord!
19. THE WHOLE NAME OF THE GAME IS FAITH & TRUST & TO TRUST HIM ANYHOW! "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!"--Even if you weren't a shining example & didn't have a glorious victory!--You trusted Him in seeming defeat, & that's a victory in itself, to be a good loser!--More than a conqueror!
20. LOOK AT THE MARTYRS!--"THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH!"--That's the greatest thing that could be said of them! They died & they were killed & they were martyred!--But they never lost faith, they never lost heart. "These all died in faith!" (Heb.11:13)
21. THAT'S THE GREATEST VICTORY OF ALL, WHEN YOU SEEM TO BE DEFEATED & YOU STILL TRUST THE LORD! That must be the greatest & the most pleasing thing of all to God.--Faith in the face of disaster, faith in the face of agony, faith in the face of death!--"These all died in faith"!
22. AND OF COURSE THE GREATEST TEST OF FAITH IS DEATH! "O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" (1Cor.15:55) The sting of death is sin, & the victory of the grave is to keep you dead! But the marvel of righteousness is faith! Faith is the only righteousness really, & that results in victory over the grave, resurrection!
23. THAT'S THE FINAL TEST OF FAITH AFTER ALL, ISN'T IT?--DEATH! IF YOU DIE STILL TRUSTING, THAT'S THE FINAL VICTORY! Praise God? Amen? If you can die trusting, then you've really got it made!
24. THAT TAKES THE GREATEST FAITH OF ALL, TO BE A GOOD LOSER, MORE THAN A CONQUEROR! "These all died in faith", trusting in the Lord! HAL! TYJ! GBAKY trusting even through death!--And don't worry, you will! You'll die like you lived, still trusting God!--Amen?--In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family