Choosing to Live as God’s Child
Treasures of faith
Faith Principle #8 Biblical Faith Gives Us The Strength And Ability We Need
Chuck and Sharon Betters
Today’s Treasure
Sandra’s story is like a modern-day Moses’ story of choosing obedience when obedience means great sacrifice:
“My college boyfriend’s marriage proposal had one troubling requirement, that I convert to Judaism. If I didn’t convert, he told me, he would lose his family inheritance. Weighed against losing a man who had loved me through the traumatic separation and divorce of my parents, I found it fairly easy to push my Catholic upbringing and beliefs into the background. I loved this man deeply, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to become his wife. Thus, I accepted his proposal and his conditions, and I converted to his faith.
Although I practiced Judaism and attempted to understand and observe Jewish customs, my husband’s religion could not sufficiently meet my own spiritual needs. All of my attempts to be a faithful Jew only left me feeling empty and disappointed. I felt estranged from the very God I was trying so hard to know and please. Finally, as I sat in Temple on a Jewish holiday, I broke down in tears as I admitted to myself that I was practicing a religion I didn’t really believe in. I had turned away from Christ, and now I didn’t know how to make things right in my life again. My deepening struggle to undo my mistake only intensified with the birth of my daughter. How could I raise this child in a faith I myself could not accept? Even though I felt estranged from God, I still pleaded with Him to help me figure out what to do.
To struggle along in silence, of course, would mean financial security and a life of ease for me and my daughter. But I just couldn’t do this. I wanted to know Christ; I needed to know Christ. When I read about Moses, I understood how difficult it must have been for him to leave the wealth and comfort of the Egyptian royal palace for a life of hardship and wandering with his true people. Choosing to follow Christ would mean that I, too, might lose everything, that I, too, would have a hard life. But it didn’t matter. The longing in my heart to know God personally, as I could only do through His Son, proved greater than my fears of what the future might bring. So it was that I asked God to help me return to the faith I knew was true, the faith my heart was truly drawn to.
My husband couldn't understand my needs, and he promptly left us, placing our home on the market. Instead of having financial security in a “perfect” little family, I was suddenly a single mother faced with scary, life-changing decisions. Where would I live? How would I survive? I was at my wits’ end.
It was then that God sent Linda, a friend from my past, to help me through the next step in my spiritual odyssey. Linda listened, carefully and lovingly, as I shared my story with her one day over lunch. She wisely discerned the incompleteness of my own faith and told me very clearly and plainly that I needed to repent of the sin in my life and to ask Christ into my heart, and this I humbly did.
Though close to my own age, Linda proved to be a marvelous “spiritual mother” to me, someone who accepted me and my young daughter into her heart and home. Her congregation also welcomed us into their church family. Jesus’ forgiveness and His presence in my heart really transformed me into a new person. I had been so hungry for God’s Word, and I was so ready to start learning to trust His promises. Through the preaching and teaching in that fellowship, I learned solid scriptural truth, and I was, at long last, finally reunited with God. In a way, He became my new “husband” and was a loving “father” to my daughter. His compassion guided me through the difficult and confusing journey of single parenthood. His presence gave us bright direction and warm light during the dark days and shaded us from the burning sun of discouragement and lonely times. Instead of depending on people and circumstances for my security and wisdom, God’s Word became a constant source of comfort and guidance for me. I was even able to accept my singleness unless or until God decided He had other plans for me.
Finally, after ten years as a single mother, I met and married a wonderful man, someone who loves me and who shares my faith in the Living God. The Lord has thus led me from darkness into His marvelous light; He has adopted me into His family and given me the desire to live for Christ. In sharing His compassion and mercy so freely with me, He has also given me a heart for finding and helping others who are now, as I was then, lost, lonely, and afraid.”
The story of Moses’ choice to give up earthly security and join with his people struck a chord in Sandra's life. She, too, had to make hard choices. Who would provide for her and her daughter? How would she survive? Could she give up her comfortable, well-provisioned life to face an uncertain financial future? Would she believe God’s promise to be with her even when her outward circumstances looked hopeless and grim? Every day presented new hard choices for Sandra, testing her faith in the power of her Savior, Jesus Christ.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Although our lives may not be quite as stark and challenging, every Christian faces difficult choices. Choosing to trust God for what we cannot see and think we cannot do first requires humility and a recognition of God’s almighty power. It is also important to remember that God truly cares deeply for each of us (1 Peter 5:6-9). Will we then draw near to God (James 4:4–10), ready to enter His presence, ready to hear what He would have us do? Will we believe His Word (Ephesians 5:19; 6:17) and obey His commands even when those commands are hard and the goals seem impossible?
You may not see a dazzling bush filled with bright flames before you, but be sure that God is present, that He is speaking to you now. He is promising to give you everything you need for life and godliness, for the growth of your faith; He will provide you with the strength for the days ahead and all the “provisions” for the journey that your heart will need: the goodness, the knowledge, the self-control, the perseverance, the godliness, the kindness, and—perhaps most of all—the love (2 Peter 1:3–8).
The question is: Will you trust Him? Will you?
Compare God’s response to Moses to God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1–3 and Genesis 15:1, to Isaac in Genesis 26:23–24, to Jacob in Genesis 28:13–15, and to Joseph in Genesis 48:21–22. What promise did God make to all of these men?
PRAYER
And Father, that is the question for each of us, isn’t it? Give us faith to trust You in the places that require giving up what others count as security and safety. Amen.
MORE…
Adapted from Treasures of Faith by Chuck and Sharon Betters with permission from P&R Publishing.
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