Faith - making God look good

RevJP · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:39 am Post subject: Faith - making God look good

This is what faith is: it is the strong assurance that God's promises are good and that he can and will perform them. And the harder the promises seem to fulfill, the more our faith honors God.

Faith Shows God to Be Strong and Wise and Loving and Reliable

What is it about faith that gives glory to God? This is crucial for you to know because you exist to give glory to God. That is why God created you: to display more of his glory in the universe. The main problem with all the world is that humanity has exchanged the glory of God for other things (Romans 1:23). We have totally lost and abandoned our reason for being and should not wonder then that so much is utterly wrong with the world. But God is bringing creation back to its reason for being, and the prophets tell us that "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Habukkuk 2:14; see also Numbers 14:21).

It matters whether you know why you were created and brought into this world. If you don't know, your life will be a mere shadow of the substance God intends - a mere echo of the music you were designed to make - a mere residue of the impact you might have had. Ephesians 1:5-6 describes the purpose of your existence like this: "God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus . . . to the praise of the glory of His grace." You exist for the praise of the glory of God's grace.

And Romans 4:20 says that faith is fundamental to fulfilling your purpose for being: "Abraham grew strong in faith, giving glory to God." Faith is God's ordained way of being justified because faith glorifies God.

Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge.
You are, let's say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, "Jump, I'll catch you. I promise." Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won't jump, if you shake your head and run away from the edge, you make your daddy look bad. It looks like you are saying, "he can't catch me" or "he won't catch me" or "it's not a good idea to do what he tells me to do". And all three of those make your dad look bad.

But you don't want to make God look bad. So you trust him. Then you make him look good - which he really is. And that is what we mean when we say, "Faith glorifies God" or "Faith gives God glory." It makes him look as good as he really is. So trusting God is really important.