How Important Is Your Faith / Mrs Kim McCoy

Mrs Kim McCoy

Pastor's Wife

First Baptist Church of Urbandale

Des Moines, IA

                                                         How Important Is Your Faith?

Each Saturday morning we have an organized soul winning time at our church.  As you all know, Christmas Eve day was on Saturday this last year, and to be honest I was hoping my husband would cancel soul winning for that week.  Well, he didn’t do that.  When we arrived at the church that morning to meet with the other soul winners, it ended up being just our family and our Assistant pastor, so we headed out to an apartment complex to knock on doors.   I took our oldest daughter out with me and was trying to watch my attitude, as I still had some last minute Christmas shopping to do.  I didn’t really want to be out knocking doors.  I know, that is a horrible attitude, and I’m not proud of it.  
A girl, who is a senior in high school, answered the first door we knocked.  She was pregnant with her first child.  She was a very sweet girl; a girl who knew that she had messed up, and was searching for help.   I was able to present the gospel to her.  She did not receive Christ that day, but the seed had been sown. 
We continued on down the hallway and didn’t find anyone home until the last door we knocked.  A black man in his early 20’s answered the door.  We ended up talking to him for 30 minutes. This young man was also searching.  His mom took him to church when he was younger, but he had gotten out of church when he was a teenager.  He knew about God, but hadn’t received Him as his Saviour.  I was also able to give him the Gospel, but like the girl at the first door, he did not receive Christ.  As this young man talked, he told my daughter and me how he was searching out other religions and was watching people to see what their faith really meant to them; how important it was to them.  We finished talking to him and went our way.
As we left, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head.  “How important is my faith to me?”  Obviously, it must not have been very important to me that day if I wasn’t willing to go out and tell others about Christ.  Needless, to say, as I left the apartment complex that day I was very convicted and needed to ask forgiveness for my cold heart.  
I’ve thought about that statement so many times since that day.  I’ve asked myself many times since then, “What does my faith mean to me?” “How important is it to me?”  As Christians, it is so easy to do things in our own strength, to get busy and forget to share the gospel with others, to get discouraged when things aren’t going right, and to try and take things in our own hands when going through a trial instead of letting God work.  Here are some questions we might ask ourselves in order to help us analyze where we are in our faith. 
1. Does our faith mean enough to us to share it with others?  

2Corinthians 6:1 “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”  Paul is saying to the church in Corinth not to receive the grace of God in vain; in other words, when you get saved don’t live a vain (Fruitless; ineffectual) life.  As Christians we need to be producing fruit - other Christians.  The way for us to bear fruit is by abiding in Christ.  John 15:4-5 “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”  

Abiding in Christ will allow us to have the power we need to witness to others.  We have to remember that we can’t do it in our own strength. 

America used to primarily be a Christian nation, but today it’s very different.  I don’t know how many doors I’ve knocked on where the person answering the door had never heard the gospel.  To me, this is very sad.  We as Christians have to be careful of getting too busy and focused on things that don’t really matter and neglect to tell others about Christ.  A couple things to help us in this matter:  1). Abide in Christ and 2). Meditate on and remember the day that you received Christ as your Saviour.  
If we stay excited about the work that God has done in our lives then we’ll want to share it with others.

2. Does our faith mean enough to us that our lives are reflecting Christ?

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  
I know it’s not popular to live a separated life in this day and age, but we must not let society or the world dictate the way we live.  We must live our lives according to God’s Word.  Titus 2:11-15 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.  Let no man despise thee.”  
God wants us to live separated lives - to deny ungodliness and the lusts of the world.  He wants us to live soberly (Without intemperate passion; coolly; calmly; moderately) and righteously. Yes, we have to live in this world, but we don’t have to live like the world.  
We never know who is watching us.  Just like the young man that I met that day while out soul winning, he was watching people to see how important their faith was to them.  When the people of the world see us, can they tell that there is something different?  I have 5 children and the three oldest work or have worked at a grocery store called Fareway.  Almost immediately, their co-workers knew they were Christians by the way they dressed, the way they talked, and by their spirit and attitude.  
Because of their example, they have had co-workers talk to them about God and about spiritual matters, and also they(co-workers) have been more careful about what they say and how they act around my children.  Now if my children had
talked bad, sang the same songs they sang (thank God they didn’t know them), and acted wrong, then they couldn’t have been that “light” God wants them to be.  
They were made fun of by some, and even though it hasn’t always been easy, I praise God that our children let their “light” shine to the world.
May we be reminded that once we accept Christ as our personal Saviour, this body is no longer ours, it belongs to Christ.  I Corinthians 6:19-20, “ What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”   It’s very important to be careful of our actions, our attitude, our dress, how we conduct ourselves, etc. so that the world may see Christ through us, and so that our “light” will shine.

3. Does our faith mean enough to us that we allow testing and trials in our lives?  

I’ve never met anyone who was overjoyed or happy about going through a trial or hard times.  I know I don’t sit there and think, “Wow, I really can’t wait to go through this trial, It’s going to be so exciting and awesome!”   No, I get a little scared, panic some, and pray “Lord, do I really have to go through this testing?”  Do you know though, according to 2Corinthians 6:4-5 we are to approve (okay them; assent unto) trials, afflictions, and testings in our lives?  
I recently did a Bible study with the ladies from our church on this passage, and was amazed at what I learned.  2 Corinthians 6:3-5 says, “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:  But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,  In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;”  
There is not one thing on that list that sounds like fun!  But, if we want our faith to grow we have to go through trials.  Anyone that has ever done great things for God and has great faith did not get it by living an easy live.   No, they had to go through great trials and afflictions.   I love to read Hebrews 11, where the Bible listed the men and women who had great faith.  But as I read about the great
things they accomplished and the great faith they had, I also think about the trials they went through.  
Praise God for the Bible and the godly examples that he gives us to help us in our own lives!  The greatest example of all is our Lord Jesus Christ.  Think of how much suffering and persecution He went through and all because he loved us and wanted us to be able to have eternal life.  The least we can do is to allow or to “approve” the trials, testings, and hard times that come into our lives so that our faith may grow.  Phillipians 1:10 “That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;”

When our faith grows, it pleases God, and it allows him to use us to do great things for him.  II Timothy 1:8,  “ Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;”
In closing, I want to say that I’m so glad that I went soul winning that day even though I didn’t want to.  Had I not, I would have never met that young man.  I was able to share the Gospel with him that day, and in turn, he provoked me with questions that I have thought about many time since then.  “How important is my Faith to me?”  “What does it really mean to me?”