Food for Thought 10

The Holy Spirit's gift to us is Faith, and in order for Faith to be increased in our lives, the Holy Spirit must increase it.  Faith is the very first grace, the root of purity, the foundation of holiness, the beginning and end of godliness.  Faith is the breath in our spiritual lungs.  Faith is the mainspring in the heart of the Christian.  Man-made, self-righteous religion is just this - I believe in myself, I have made up mind that I am going to help save myself from the wrath to come; never mind bothering with the instantaneous free forgiveness of sins and irreversible eternal life that the Gospel of Christ offers.

The whole act of Faith is the simple matter of believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh who bled to death to atone for human sin, and then throwing your soul upon Jesus to save your soul.  Trust Jesus now, rely upon Him implicitly, fix your reliance in His Blood.  Christ Jesus bore your sins, God the Father punished Jesus for your sins, and if you trust to Jesus, God will never punish you.  In divine justice God cannot punished both the Substitute and the offender for the same sins.

The act of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ's person and blood alone for all your Salvation is the act which brings the soul into a state of grace and peace with God, and is the mark and evidence of being born again by the Spirit of God.  This is the way of human nature:  Self-made men, self-reliance, believe in yourself, make money any way you can, always take care of number one.

Lord Jesus, increase my Faith in You, help me to trust the Unseen, rely upon your promises and faithfulness.  The simplicity of the Cross is the grandest message.  You are truly a sinner, and have no righteousness of your own; you deserve God's wrath.  Gravity and cheerfulness; prayer and praise; works and witnessing; common sense and spiritual gifts; mental intellect and faith; talent and purity, simplicity and sincerity; not symbolism and formalism.

Receiving Christ is the hardest possible act of human nature to perform.  To trust Jesus, to lean with all your soul upon Him, to make Him all your confidence and rest.  Come to Christ by thinking of Him, trusting Him, obeying Him, loving and honoring Him.  Trust your defenseless soul with Jesus; only He can save you from loving your sins.  Come to the Cross sinful and defiled, cast yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ the Lord by a simple act of faith in His precious blood.  My ultimate Safety is of through Jesus' grace and blood.

I am utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ; I absolutely rest upon Him.  The only remedy for sin that God will ever offer to the sons of men is the remedy of a bleeding Substitute, suffering and dying in the sinner's place, believed on, received into the heart.  The way of Salvation is just this - rest alone upon Christ Jesus Himself, depending wholly upon His Finished Work and Precious Blood.  Stop clinging to your sins or to your good works - they will both certainly damn you.  It is not your doings, it is leaving off doing.  It is not working, it is trusting to the work which Jesus has already accomplished in His sinless life and bloody death.  *Trust* - that is the word - simple, solid, hearty, earnest trust in Jesus, not in yourself.

The moment you trust to Jesus' atoning blood, you are saved and wholly forgiven forever, and instantly justified in the sight of God.  Christ Jesus is my All in All.  Rest on Christ, depend on His Blood.  The Lord Jesus is the Foundation of my dependence, the guide of my actions, and the chief delight of my soul.  Faith is the mouth of the soul - by faith we feed upon the person of Christ spiritually.  Chris must be spiritually digested and assimilated by God-given Faith; He must be received inwardly as the Bread of Life and the Water of Life.  He that hath the Son hath life.  Look to Jesus for life eternal, depend on Him alone.

God Almighty was made flesh and bled and died to save sinners from the wrath to come.  Depend upon the Holy Spirit to put divine energy into everything you say and do.  Seek to wins souls to Christ Jesus every day.  Have done with trusting to your good works and merits; take Christ's works, merits, and rest alone upon Him for all your Salvation.  Full dependence upon Jesus is key.  I know I trust Christ, I have no reliance but in Him; this is the only way to get Joy and Peace through believing. Your main business must be with Christ Jesus Himself.  Free pardon for all your sins; Justification through Faith in His Atoning Sacrifice on Calvary's Cross; eternal life through His bloody death; sanctifying power from the Blood of Jesus; preservation and acceptance depends solely upon Christ's mercy and righteousness.

Rest upon Jesus with sincere, childlike, loving confidence; obey His faintest summons and warnings; neglect not His inward whispers; turn not aside from His teachings in the words of God.  The object of your Faith must be the work which Christ Jesus accomplished upon the Cross for sinners.  The true way to get comfort is to close with the Cross; this is the way to comfort - think much of the Lamb of God bleeding and dying for you until you are comforted.  Precious Savior, at your feet I lie, here to receive a cure or die. To trust Christ Himself is the root of all genuine Salvation.  The grandest thing that a man can do is to trust Christ as He reveals Himself in His words found in the Holy Bible.  Jesus must be the object of your search; nothing else is worth seeking for; be wise, make Salvation from sin and hell the first object of your soul's desire.

Depend simply upon the merit of Christ and the work of the Spirit of God.  Salvation is coming to Christ, depending and relying upon Him alone; this will bring your soul God's blessing.  Without Jesus ye can do nothing.  Make Jesus your sole reliance today.  Become completely dependent upon the mercy and charity of God in Christ.  To depend entirely upon the sinner's Savior is the sinner's Salvation.  Plead the promises of the of the Holy Spirit in simple, childlike Faith.  Be willing to learn from Jesus in a childlike spirit.  Ascribe all your salvation to Christ Jesus, simple childlike confidence which casts itself into the arms of Jesus who suffered a bloody death on Calvary's Cross for all your sins against God.  Sit quietly at the feet of Jesus with a childlike spirit of discipleship.

The meaning of Faith is to trust, to confide in, to commit to, to entrust with, to place confidence in, have upon reliance upon.  Faith is just this - to simply have done altogether with reliance upon yourself; to have done with confidence in anything but Jesus, and to rest alone upon Him; to place undivided confidence in Him, and in what He has done for sinners.  Rely with all you have upon the Finished Work of the Savior.   Faith, in a word, is a reliance from the heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ.  You can never think too highly of Jesus Christ.  You can never place too much reliance in the blood of Jesus Christ, never look any where else but Jesus for spiritual strength. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ (His Precious Blood and perfect Atoning Sacrifice) will make you a saved soul instantly on the spot.  Faith in the Atoning Blood of God manifest in the flesh is the grand cure for your love of sin.