Making Progress in the Life of Faith (4)

“…you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt…” Deuteronomy 7.18

A faulty view of Scripture
Many Christians are thwarted in making progress in the life of faith because of a faulty understanding of Scripture. It’s not that they don’t regard the Bible as the Word of God or don’t’ consider that what it teaches is true. The problem lies elsewhere. 

Many Christians are of the opinion that the events of Scripture, and the great doctrines these illustrate, occurred in a different space/time continuum than the one in which we live. “That was then,” many Christians believe, “but this is now.” They seem to think God worked one way throughout the pages of the Bible, but today He works in ways more familiar to us.

I saw this plainly one weekend as I was leading a workshop for a local church and its leaders on the work of shepherding. I explained how God personally selected that model as a guiding motif for church leaders. Then I showed how the Lord Jesus and the apostles understood and practiced the work of shepherding and asked the members of the workshop to consider how this compared with what they were doing in their church. 

Not very well, as it turned out. 

In churches today we run programs, organize committees, create teams, and hold events. Whatever “shepherding” needs doing is reserved for people who are ill, elderly, hurting, or confused. In the Scriptures, God chose shepherding as the model for making disciples and building His Church. But that was then…

In the workshop, I continued to show that God intends to build His Church through the ministry of shepherds, who follow Jesus, leading and making disciples as He did. At a break, one of the participants pulled me aside and said, “You know, T. M., this is really good stuff. This shepherding was a really good idea for the people in Bible times. But we live in the real world…” 

I stopped him right there. I said, “No, my friend, we don’t live in the real world. We live in a world fallen in sin and groaning to be revived and renewed. And in the Church in that world, the way to revival, renewal, awakening, and restoration is through shepherding. This is what God teaches us in His Word, and it’s what faithful generations of our forebears in the faith have practiced with such power and effectiveness.”

The God of all history
The God of Scripture is the God of all history. The things He did in Scripture, and the ways He taught us to do His will and make progress in following His Son, remain the same today. 

Throughout Church history faithful men and women have believed that God has not changed, that He is still God Almighty, and that no obstacle is too great for Him to overcome in furthering the progress of His Kingdom. When the people of Israel would feel themselves giving in to fear, all they had to do was remember that the God Who was with them was the same God Who overthrew Pharaoh and all his armies by a mighty deliverance through the Red Sea. 

“Remember the Lord!” This advice is just as good today as it was then.

Whenever we feel as though the obstacles to making progress in revival, renewal, awakening and restoration are just too many, or we are simply too weak and distracted, or the likelihood of success seems remote – at all such times we need to remember the Lord. He is the Lord Who overturned the Roman Empire, saved civilization through the Celtic revival, led His people to build the culture of Christendom, inspired innovations and great advances in the arts, education, and science, sent the First and Second Great Awakenings, and Who today is putting all the enemies of Jesus Christ under His feet for the sake of building His Church.

That was then, it’s true; but that is also now as well, wherever faithful believers are willing to remember the Lord and take Him at His Word.

God is able!
God is able, supremely able to fulfill all that He has promised. We must never lose sight of Him. He Who raised Jesus from the dead can surely revive our complacent souls, renew our status quo churches, and awaken and restore our decadent world unto the praise of the glory of His grace. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think by the power that is at work within us (Eph. 3.20; Phil. 2.13). He will honor those who shepherd His flock, embrace their calling to be His witnesses, work to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Jesus Christ, and seek the filling and power of His Spirit for their daily walk and work.

The problem is not that the God of the Bible is not the same today as He was then. Or that those Biblical ways which were so powerful and effective then are no longer available to us today. 

The problem is that we lack the faith to take God at His Word as we hear Him speaking in Scripture, because we have lost sight of the greatness, power, majesty, wisdom, and faithfulness of our God.

If we want to make progress in the life of faith today, we’ll need to remember the Lord and follow Him according to all His Word.

For reflection
1.  Have you ever heard yourself saying, “Yes, well, that was then, but this is now, and things have changed…”? Explain.

2.  How can we know when we’re following the ways of the world rather than the ways of God? What should we do when we discern this?

3.  What is one area of your life where you’d like to be more faithful in taking God at His Word? What can you do today to begin making progress in this area?

Next steps – Preparation, Conversation: How can believers help one another to “remember” the Lord whenever they feel they’re not making progress in their faith? Talk with a Christian friend about this question. 

T. M. Moore

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