'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe?'

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus.'

Read that again, please.

'No one should be surprise at the difficult of faith- IF there is some part of his life where he is CONSCIOUSLY resisting or disobeying the COMMANDMENT OF JESUS.'

My thought- Why do we imagine that we can disobey willfully, resist willfully and then believe that our LOVING God will be apart of our lives through FORCE. Because isn't that what it'd be? Wouldn't God be forcing Himself on us if against our will He gave us Himself while we WILLFULLY resist Him and disobey Him? 

If you're purposely resisting someone and they keep at you, they are forcing themselves on you.

If you constantly disobey someone's rules you are NOT in any way desiring to follow them, or desiring to be a part of their life, are you?

As adults we know that if we constantly break society's laws that we are showing disrespect for society and we are punished accordingly and some people are taken out of this society and put into a special society called prison.

Society doesn't (as a rule) tolerate repeated offenders of its rules without repercussions. And judges have no choice but to believe those who choose to break society's rules don't want to be a part of that society any more. 

If we find our faith lacking and we are WILLFULLY (consciously) in some part of our life, in any part of our life, resisting or disobeying the commandments of Jesus then we are given a clue as to why our faith is lacking. We are choosing NOT to believe (not to have faith) when we choose to disobey and resist the SAVIOR. 

Our God did not leave us with the dictate to believe and then give us nothing to believe. Our God gave us the LIVING CHRIST to believe in, to follow. HE is our example!

More now from Bonhoeffer-

'Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised what you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered. Go rather and be reconciled with your brother, renounce the sin which holds you fast-- and then you will recover your faith! If you dismiss the word of God's command, you will not receive his word of grace. How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him? The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

My thoughts- TRUTH!

Run from this truth if you want, but you do so at your own peril.  Seriously.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Asked of Jesus-  What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Answered of Jesus- Nothing.   

NO!  That's not what Jesus answered! Jesus did not tell that man- do nothing.  Jesus could have told this man that but it wouldn't have been TRUTH.

Answered of Jesus- What is written in the law? How readest thou?

Answered of the man-  The reciting of the MORAL law.

Answered of Jesus-  Thou answered RIGHT.  DO and thou shalt live.

Do.

Jesus said- DO.

And in reality what Jesus was telling this man to do was LOVE Him and LOVE others, because that is what the moral commandments are.  People have perverted the law into harsh restrictive commands they need to be free of, Satan's handiwork to be sure.  When we look upon the moral law of God and find them restrictive how are we seeing the love in them? 

'The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

Honestly, how can we say we have faith if we do nothing that reveals that faith to be real?

If I say I have faith in you, then I'm believing in you.  And if you tell me to do something and I believe in you then I should do it, right? If you say you have faith in me, and then don't do something I tell you to do, do you really have faith in me? Are you really believing in me? Has anyone ever said to you- 'Believe me, just believe me.'  They are asking you to have faith in them.

We've learned not to have faith in others by repeated failure for others to truly love us and desire our best interests. We've been lied to time and time again and it's made it hard for us to have faith in others.  Our God has NEVER LIED, NEVER, NOT EVEN ONCE.

Our lack of faith is NOT a fault of God's, but a fault in us for refusing to obey God, for refusing to believe enough to obey.  We ultimately choose, we are NOT forced to believe. Faith and obeying truly do go hand in hand.

When Bonhoeffer wrote the following he knew what he was talking about--

'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus.'

'The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

Truth.

Jas_2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Faith without action is not true faith.

Mat_7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Truth.

By the grace and mercy of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, more tomorrow!

Help us LORD. Bless us this Sabbath day, open our hearts to YOUR truth. Open our understanding to YOUR truth. Bless us with the Holy Spirit through YOUR love, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, YOUR FORGIVENESS, YOUR LOVE.