284. ARE YOU A PERSON OF FAITH?

(The Faith Forum Series – Batch 9)

In Luke 18:8, Jesus asked the question, in terms of his future return to the earth:

“…when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

You may ask, why on earth would he ask such a question? After all, people speak more about faith today than maybe any other generation.

The idea of faith has become almost like a fashionable thing, so much so that statements like “have faith” and “keep the faith” have become common to hear.

Recently, I heard a woman in an interview, in referring to herself and her newfound husband, speaking about “his faith” and “her faith”. That was as far as she went. She did not expand to say faith in what exactly, just that she had a faith and her husband had a faith, as if faith is something that a person chooses to pick up and to have and to mould and tweak however he or she pleases.

The fact of the matter is that most people today speak about their “faith” and by this, many of them mean, faith in a religion, faith in a particular denomination, faith in spirituality, faith in acknowledgment of the existence of some higher power, somewhere or faith that life will work out exactly the way that they want it, someday.

Yet, true faith is faith that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Saviour of the world. Faith in anything else or a floating faith that is not tied to anything or anyone, so that it is faith in faith itself is of none effect. In short, that is no faith at all. Jesus is the source of faith, the one from whom it originated. He is the one that true Christians place their faith in, believing on him with their heart, confessing with their mouth and surrendering their whole life to his control and Lordship.

Jesus therefore knew exactly what he was asking. It was not that he did not know the answer. As God the Son, he was and still is all-knowing. Yet, I believe he asked what he did, to provoke thought and to underscore an important issue – That as time progresses, true and genuine faith IN HIM, will diminish, to the point where, when he returns, people may have the word faith endlessly on their tongues but finding persons with what is really faith, that being faith IN HIM, AS LORD, will be rare, few and in-between.

This is a sad state of affairs but it begs the question, are you a person of faith? By this I mean, do you have faith in JESUS CHRIST, as Lord? Do you believe on him in your heart and have you confessed the truth, that he is Lord? If so, have you been living your life in submission to his Lordship and control with the mentality, that he is sovereign and has the right to order the direction of your life and all of your decisions?

(Written on 26th December, 2023)