Christ is our example. Got that? Most of us like certainty, though some brave souls seem to thrive on the edge of risking it all. Christ had a confidence in God that his prayers would be heard and answered and His complete submission to the will of God was always rewarded with a clear channel of communication and inner support of his physical being … until. Until his crucifixion.
There his faith was tested in the only way it had not been. Would he trust God even when he heard no supportive inner voice? Would he wimp out as I do all the time? The testimony of the gospels is that he passed the test and without the indwelling fullness of the Godhead He trusted His Father enough to offer Him His spirit. His faith was rewarded as it always was. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, testified that he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God himself as he was being stoned.
I can’t tell you how many times I have pleaded with God for PROOF that if I did “A” he would do “B”. I pout for a while and he lets me eat at his table when I calm down. I never realized that he also went through a trial in which he was given no supportive faith. He just had to TRUST the Father. Man, that’s hard.
There his faith was tested in the only way it had not been. Would he trust God even when he heard no supportive inner voice? Would he wimp out as I do all the time? The testimony of the gospels is that he passed the test and without the indwelling fullness of the Godhead He trusted His Father enough to offer Him His spirit. His faith was rewarded as it always was. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, testified that he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God himself as he was being stoned.
I can’t tell you how many times I have pleaded with God for PROOF that if I did “A” he would do “B”. I pout for a while and he lets me eat at his table when I calm down. I never realized that he also went through a trial in which he was given no supportive faith. He just had to TRUST the Father. Man, that’s hard.