Grace & Truth Chapel
131 Fardale Avenue ~ Mahwah, New Jersey
Phone 201-327-6226 ~ E-mail gtchapel@juno.com

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"The Faith that Is Real" (posted October 1, 2006)

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham ... and said to him, "Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you."
   - Acts 7:2-3

Nothing but faith could have enabled Abraham to turn his back upon the land of his birth, to go forth not knowing whither he went. But, "he believed in the Lord" (Genesis 15:6). Observe, it was not something about God which he believed---some tradition or opinion respecting God. He knew whom he believed, and here lay the source of his faith.

Do you have faith in God? Do you know Him? Can you trust Him for everything? All steady devotedness rests upon the solid ground of personal faith in a living God.

It will not do to "say" we believe. We cannot too strongly insist upon this. There is too much "knowledge" and lip profession which is mere shallow, surface work. It is easy to say we believe, but "what does it profit ... if someone says he has faith?" (James 2:14). Faith [must be] a divine reality.

Faith bears the soul above and carries it on in triumph, come what may. There may be failure and confusion, error and evil, coldness and deadness, strife and division, breaking down and turning aside, stumblings and inconsistencies---all manner of things to shake the confidence and stagger the soul. But faith holds on, undaunted and undismayed because it leans on God alone and finds all its springs in Him. Nothing can touch the faithfulness of God and nothing can shake the confidence of the heart that simply takes God at His word.

Faith, in reality, is taking God at His word; believing what He says, simply because He says it; and taking His thoughts in place of our own. How simple!

Charles H. Mackintosh



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