Put Your Own Oxygen Mask on First: Living by Faith
Posted on December 6, 2023 by Elizabeth Welte in Freedom Fighters
And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ so the Lord said, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. Luke 17:5-6 (NKJV)
I hope you’ve stuck with me during this series about putting your own oxygen mask on first before you go out into Secularland and try to save it from itself. There’s a list of four questions that you should ask yourself from time to time just to see if you need to sit down with a friend and go through this list with them. The first two, “Am I causing others to sin?” and “Am I willing to forgive” are the two that are the most difficult to handle because they are rooted in dealing with others. And as we know when dealing with others things can go wrong, and when not handled correctly, the occasional bump in the road turns into something bigger and that can leave us wavering in our faith in God as we walk with Christ.
However, it’s not really a great faith in God that is required as it is to have faith in a great God. Maybe this is where we make our first mistake. I say that because of what we read in the aforementioned verse from Luke. Jesus is quick to point out, after His telling His disciples to forgive 7 times a day 7 days a week, that it isn’t that they needed help with the faith they had, it’s just that they needed the right kind of faith. They needed, as Alistair Begg points out in his sermon Be Careful How You Live, “a living, vigorous faith.” The kind of faith that can say to something that has deeply rooted itself into the ground, be removed from this spot and be moved to another.
It’s a wonderful illustration in the ways things can become deeply rooted within ourselves and has to be removed. Mulberry trees have got themselves a root system to live off of and like something sinful or off-balance in ourselves, it’ll take the right kinda faith in a great God to make things right. And if you’re asking me what kinda faith are we supposed to have the answer could as simple as saying “child-like.” A faith that doesn’t doubt, question, or seek an explanation, it just believes…it has child-like trust in a great God!
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18
How many of you have gone before His Throne of Grace, humbly bowed your hearts before El-Elyon, and have requested, “Lord, keep our faith alive: Lord, sustain it as it is present?” I’m hoping none of you…keep our faith alive and sustain it while its present? Like, it accomplished its goal so we’re finished here, and if not, what it’s doing then? Hanging around accomplishing nothing? May that not be! May our prayer of request be that of the apostles, that heart felt, “Lord, increase my faith.” The end results of such a prayer just might come with an increase of holiness, an increase of comfort (just not the MyPillow kind), and an increase of usefulness to the glory of God.
To borrow from Spurgeon on the matter: We petition for an increase to our faith in its extent because of what it will receive. As you study His Word, and you’re only in the ABC’s of its understanding, constantly cry out to the Lord, “Increase my faith” to understand His word in its extent. Then we petition for increase in its intensity because with extent comes power but not as a river breaking its bank and thinning itself over a pasture only to become shallow but an increase in its surface that it may increase in its depth. When you put it like that, who doesn’t want that mustard seed now? But Spurgeon will also make this comment, ”The Person to whom the apostles addressed their prayer, The Lord. They went to the right Person. Let us do the same.”
I know we all struggle with our faith from time to time. I think if we didn’t then whatever we’re believing in means very little to us and maybe that’s where change needs to take place. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “I must fight battles, and I must win them; conquest has made what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” Yeah, then he had his Waterloo but it doesn’t dismiss the battle cry for the Christian. We just have a different victory to rest in and it’s in Jesus Christ’s conquest over sin and death, as He, in complete faith in The Fathers plan to save His creation, surrender Himself in order for all to be saved. That’s the kinda faith to be living in. Amen?
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a child of El Elyon, a son, a husband, and a father. He has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy, 11/2003. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net.
Think About This: “10,000 enemies cannot stop a Christian, cannot even slow him down, if he meets them in an attitude of complete trust in God. They will become to him like the atmosphere that resists the airplane, but which because the plane’s designers knew how to take advantage of that resistance, actually lifts the plane aloft and holds it there for a journey of 2,000 miles. What would have been an enemy to the plane becomes a helpful servant to aid it on its way.” – A.W. Tozer
The Daily Bible Reading: Rom 2-5. You can download our 2023 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here.
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21
