Compelled by Faith
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.”
Faith is the nature of God within us. Therefore if you and I have God’s Holy Spirit in us we automatically have the love of Christ in us - and then we start to walk by faith.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
And we become more like Christ when we have The Lord within our very beings. “There is a fire in my heart”, Jeremiah says, which compels me to preach the Good News about Jesus. Jeremiah 20:9
That love for people that comes from God living in us, compels us to keep on stepping out of the boat, and walking on the water. That is what compelled a young man in the 1800s to leave the safety of his home in bonny Scotland, and go out into Africa, into unchartered land, where no-one had walked before from Europe, and to tell poor lost souls about the love of Jesus Christ. The love of Christ in his heart compelled him to walk by faith.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That man of course was David Livingstone - Dr David Livingstone. He died of Malaria at the age of 60, I have been to that place. The people loved him so much that they took his heart out of his body and they buried it underneath a tree. They said, “His heart remains in Africa.” They called him, “The good man”. He was instrumental in abolishing the horrific slave trade in Africa.
You see, it is the love of Christ that compels you and me to do amazing things for God that we would never normally do. I want to encourage you today to continue to walk by faith, but the only thing that will compel you to do that is the love of Christ within your heart.
Have a wonderful Sunday as you sit down and say, “Lord, what can I do to bring the good news to poor people, to fearful people, that are being encapsulated by this Coronavirus?” Help me Lord, to step out by faith, and tell people about the love of Jesus.