Following previous pieces on guarding personal faith space and growing the faith to the point of exercising it, let me focus on how much you know the God you believe in.
from the pews WITH CONELIA MABASA
One can only have belief or faith in something that they are sure of, something they know, something they do not doubt. That is to say, for one to worry about their faith space, they have to know what must take it up. It is quite unfortunate that sometimes we think or assume we know our God when we are miles away from him. It is also easy to lose sight of God and when that happens, Christians must get worried. A relationship with God is personal, one on one, when you converse with his word and with him in prayer. We need pastors, evangelists, reverends, priests to point us in the right direction, but our focus must be the Almighty through and through.
Do not refocus because of an ailment, poverty or joblessness. There is only one God. One man, prophet Elija humbles me. He had faith in his God. God gave him instructions directly and he carried them through. He declared drought in Samaria because Ahab had sinned by building altars for Baal and leading people astray. After three years he went back as God had directed and it was time to demonstrate his faith and to show off what his God could do. he exercised his faith in a way that was revealing to the prophets of Baal. The scriptures in 1 Kings 18 v 22-39 read: Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire — he is God.”
Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
. . . . Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
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“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord — he is God! The Lord — he is God!” Let us strive to know the one true God when we still have the time. The revelation came late for the prophets of Baal, do not be like them. Do not pray to God via other humans, link up using a direct line. Keep the faith.
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