Superficial Faith

If this is all you have, you are in a very dangerous situation.  Superficial faith is not true belief or true faith.  Superficial faith is triggered by feelings and is not rational, but irrational thinking.  If all you have is this kind of faith, you will never make it through the hard times because whenever you don’t get your own way then you will be angry with God and maybe throw in the towel and give up.  Faith is not what we see but it is what we hope for.  Faith totally trusts the Lord; believing and trusting Him.  

It says this in Psalms 37:22-24, “For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by Him shall be cut off.  The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.  Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”  A faith walk has nothing to do with luck which I don’t think has any bearing, or place, in the believer’s talk or walk with the Lord.  If you only believe you were in the right place at the right time and that is how you averted an accident and that it had nothing to do with faith, it seems that all you are saying is that you were lucky.  How many times have you heard people, who claim to be believers, say that you were lucky or they were lucky in different situations?  I know this can become a habit, learned from being conformed to the world, but when you become a believer you need to break this habit and give the Lord all the glory that is due Him.  Either the Lord is guiding and leading us or He is not and we are only fooling ourselves.

If all we are doing is serving the Lord for our own convenience then we have been deceived.  Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”  Each of us should not take this lightly, Paul didn’t put this in the Word for lack of things to say, this was critical advice that needed to be acted on, and the only ones that could do it were the individual believers, it was their responsibility.

Ask yourself these questions:

Has the power of the Lord been working in your life?  

Has there been a significant change in your life?  

Does God’s Word find a home in your heart?  

Do you do the ministries you are involved in to honor God or is there

another reason?  Maybe you are trying to look important in other people’s eyes, or you are using God for financial gain, popularity or prestige, only you and the Lord know for sure.    

Since your decision to follow Christ, have you repented of your sins?  

Are you just praying selfish prayers and getting angry when your

prayers are not answered?  

Have you seen any evidence that the Lord is working in your life, or

has nothing really changed?  

We live in a day of entertainment along with emotional highs and lows so you need to be careful not to make this critical decision just because of some emotional high at the time.  Be sure your decision is a real one.   

Over the years I have talked to people that think they are going to heaven because of an experience they had in the past, but they were not living for the Lord at the time I talked to them, I guess they believed in once saved always saved.  I knew a pastor that said he went to the altar 25 times before it really changed his life, and then he became a pastor.  If you are saved, praise the Lord, but I just want to encourage you to be sure, only you and the Lord know your real motives and only the Lord knows if your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  I am not trying to scare anyone, I just want you to be sure, and so I am giving you something to think about.  Have a super day and may the Lord bless you and yours!!