Walk by Faith

Recently I heard a talk by John MacArthur from his radio station, Grace to You. The topic of this short message (30 minutes each, available on iTunes) was how to be a strong Christian, able to withstand persecution and persevere in growing. The verse was 1 Corinthians 16:13, which says


"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." 


So MacArthur went on to reference other places the Bible uses the phrase translated by the ESV as "act like men". In its original Greek, the phrase is more like "conduct yourselves in a courageous way". It was found no where else in the New Testament but plenty of places in the Old Testament. Some examples he gave were: Deut. 31:6; 2 Sam. 10:12; 1Kings 2:2; 1 Chron. 22:11-13; and Joshua 1:5-6, in which God is preparing Joshua to take up leadership of Israel after Moses' death. In the same passage, the young man is commanded that the Book of the Law should not depart from his mouth. From this, as well as places in the NT that speak of Christian strength, it seems that we are strong because of God's presence and obedience to the Bible.  {Eph. 3:14- command only can be fulfilled by the Holy Spirit's power.} 


So Christians can be strong, not in their own strength, but by..

• Knowledge of the Bible
• Resolve to Obey it
• Doing it in the Spirit's strength

What does this look like in everyday life? Well, suppose you sinned and were convicted about it. You started feeling really bad, and hurried to repent. But even though you confessed your sins to God, the yucky feeling that He was displeased with you was still there. It might be tempting to start moping around, or maybe keeping praying the same thing, or do something to try and punish yourself to show that you really were sorry. But 1 John 1:9 says that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So after you confess your sins to Him, you must believe that it is true that He will forgive you. Don't ignore conviction, of course, but if you pray for the Holy Spirit to show you the sins you've committed and nothing new comes to light, you shouldn't continue to be sad. Trust God's Word, not your feelings. And don't worry, good feelings will follow when you fill your mind with truth.