By Sister Tarpley, Religious Editor
That God is someone we can know: In all of His fullness; His forgiveness of sin, His comfort and tender care; His peace and joy within.
Of God’s gentle hand of guidance, His rod of correction, His compassion and love, His Holy perfection . . . In Christ, we can learn about Him.
Of God’s burdens and sufferings, His resurrection power, His Holy Spirit; we can learn of Him this very hour . . . He is a God we can know.
That we cannot make someone love us. We can only try to be someone who is not difficult to love.
That sometimes it takes years to build up trust; but seconds to destroy it. We can learn that it’s not what we have in life, but who we have in our life that counts.
We can learn that we can do something in a few minutes that will give us heartache for life; that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
We can learn that heroes are the people who do what has to be done, regardless of how they feel.
We can learn that maturity has more to do with attitude, dependability, and taking responsibility for our life than the number of birthdays we’ve had.
That no matter how good a friend is, that we are going to hurt each other every once in a while, and forgiveness is essential to lasting friendship; and that forgiving others is sometimes easier than forgiving ourselves.
We can learn that there is something exhilarating about the forward look; and that we should always look forward to something.
We can learn to look forward when a person becomes a Christian and renounces his love for the world; that he must not look back.
The Israelites continued to look back to the flesh pots in Egypt. They couldn’t get Egypt out of their minds.
We can learn that we can profit from history, if we allow ourselves to learn from it.
We can learn that there four possible looks: The backward, the inward, the upward, and the forward look.
The backward look is retrospective; for the most part it is liable to arrest us and we become entangled again in the things of the world.
The inward look has value, but it has its dangers in that we can experience “paralysis through analysis.”
The upward look is helpful and lifts us to the spiritual stratosphere. The forward look is challenging and fruitful; it is accompanied by faith, courage, and enthusiasm.
How can we learn the above things? By Faith! “But without faith it is impossible to please Him . . . (Hebrews 11:6a)
Faith is a combination of things: TRUST — Faith enables us to approach the Lord in trust. It causes us to say by our actions: “Lord, I trust you.
CONFIDENCE — Faith enables us to approach the Lord with confidence. Our confidence is not in the abilities, cleverness or ingenuity of man—but of God.
It is confidence that God will keep His promises. ASSURANCE — It tells us that God is everything His Word says He is; that He is intervening on our behalf and for our deliverance.
COURAGE — Faith is the courage needed to approach God with needs and to know He hears our prayers and answers them for His glory and honor.
ACTION: Faith has a passive side. It can be received as a gift from God and it also has an active side. Faith prompts action.
