Practical (simple) Faith pt 3

You’ve probably noticed by now that I sort of have a thing for what I call “Simple Faith” and the “practical application” of it in our daily lives.  As I was meditating on those concepts and looking up scripture that tended to agree with it this morning, I suddenly had to laugh with the thought of why that’s always seemed to be important to Piper and I over the years.

My initial thought was that we spent close to 35 years ministering to children, youth and college/career age classes.  And when teaching younger individuals… well, you’ve got to make it somewhat simple in order for them to grasp the truths that you’re wanting to teach them.  With some of the smaller churches we ministered in, we had large variations in the ages of the students within the classes and had to learn the nuances of the students and know when to teach up or down depending on the circumstances.

But the more I thought about it, I realized that our zeal to share the simple truths of God’s Word began way before we were married and dove into our formal ministry together.  I can go all the way back to our high school youth and college/career group days and see that we were ministering to our fellow students then.  I can picture countless individuals who came through the groups to whom we spent hours sharing the deeper promises and revelations of God’s Word to, by showing them how simple it was to take advantage of the things that God has already provided for us as a part and parcel of our salvation.

In I Timothy 2:7 the Apostle Paul told his young protégé about his own ministry stating that, “This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.” (MSG)  When I saw this verse this morning, I thought about how similar that is to what Piper and I always believed our ministry was all about.  And while we mostly ministered to Christians in the church who were still fairly immature in their faith (both youngsters and adults), we always strove to present the Gospel in a simple manner that our audiences could relate to.

Over the years, in the many Christian circles we’ve been involved with, I’ve come to think that the two most common mistakes in relating the Word to others is to intellectualize it or to flower it up so much that you lose the simple truth of it!  My biggest pitfalls when teaching the Word was to flower it up with too many examples.  And I can’t tell you of how many times that my sweet and funny wife saved the day by her “Enough Jim!” look from her seat in the front row in the church, or with her animated “Cut It Off!” motions to me from the back of the classroom!  She definitely knew and understood the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Silly) strategy, although she would never use that term.

So, what’s my point in today’s post?  Well, it’s actually quite simple…   When it comes to the practical application of your faith, you need to keep your understanding of it SIMPLE so that it is easy to integrate God’s truth into the activities of your daily life.  Jesus made the blunt comment to His disciples in Matthew 17:19-20 when they asked Him why something they did in His name didn’t work… but did when He did it.  I love the way The Message Bible puts it saying: "Because you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle." 

To me, Jesus tells us here to simply take Him and His Word at face value.  All it takes is SIMPLE FAITH to believe what it says and then JUST DO IT!  Don’t question it.  Don’t intellectualize the simple truth and power out of it or flower it up so much that you lose the meaning of what it simply says!

BINGO!  It’s rather SIMPLE wouldn’t you say?  Go ahead…  As you study His Word this weekend, step out in SIMPLE FAITH and JUST DO IT!  And as you DO… say along with me… “I am fully expecting God’s Word to work in my life today as I apply it to everything I do!”