The Daily Word

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We have been looking at the practical outworking of faith this week, that is faith in God. A long time ago I remember learning an acronym on the word ‘faith’: “Forsaking All I Trust Him”. It might sound a bit simplistic but essentially there is a lot of truth in it. Frequently our faith is NOT totally in our Saviour as this acronym implies, we try to mix our own efforts and thoughts with our reliance on God, somehow assuming that we can accomplish spiritual achievements with our own efforts, but the acronym above starts with ‘Forsaking all’. This clearly tells us that it is complete reliance on God that brings blessing.

When I mention the word ‘blessing’, we could easily substitute the word ‘benefit’. It doesn’t have the same force as blessing, but it is a more common word today. Our first thought about benefit, is that it is for others, i.e., total reliance on God will allow God to bring benefit to others. But I came across a verse in Psalm 84 that tells me about the blessing that comes to us by a strong faith in God. “Blessed is the one whose strength is in You”. This is what we receive when we trust God more, He brings strength to what we are seeking to do for Him.

In the New Testament, Jesus talked about His Ascension to His Father after His resurrection and constantly used the phrase, ‘I will send you the Comforter’, referring to the Holy Spirit, who came down on the Disciples at Pentecost and is now the blessed personal possession of all believers. The word ‘Comforter’ has a Latin base and literally means “With Strength”. So the secret of spiritual strength is letting the Holy Spirit have free reign in our lives and our work for our Lord and Saviour, echoing those word in the Old Testament “…. By My Spirit, says the Lord”.

 As John the Baptist said about a different but related situation, “He must increase but I must decrease”. There is no ‘I’ in ‘trust’!

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church 

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