Forward Facing Faith, Part 2

Today I have been stirred by a verse of scripture that has, once again, challenged my faith to look through the prism of promise into the hope of what God can bring to pass. Luke 16:16 say, "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." Another version (ESV) says that "... everyone forces his way into it." The ESV also offers in a footnote this alternative translation, "...everyone is forcefully urged into it."

I read that today and felt something stirring deep down on the inside. Everyone that wants to be a part of God's promises, presses his way into it, or forces his way into it. Not everyone gets the message of the Kingdom of God. Not everyone grasps the promises and blessings of the good news of the Kingdom of God. But, without exception, those that do get it have a deep seated faith that forcefully urges them into the promise of God. There is something within them that becomes so stirred that it absolutely refuses to accept the current condition as the end of the story!

Forward facing faith presses its way into the promise of God. This is the common characteristic of every man that receives God's promises. They abandon the anchors of their past and the constraints of the present to press, by force, into the promise of the future. This is the one thing that every seeker of God must have in order to receive the blessings of God in their life.

The past will endeavor to tell you that you can't change. The past will endeavor to tell you that everything has to stay the way that it always has been. The past will do its best to hold you down and hold you back, it will remind you of all the other times you've tried and failed. It will remind you of your inconsistencies, of all your past faults and failures. But there's something in forward facing faith that refuses to be anchored to the past. It forcefully compels you to reach out to the promise of a brand new life. It forcefully compels you to invest your hope in the precious blood of Christ. It compels you to cast off the hold of your past and believe that you CAN change; that you can be different; that there can and will be a better day in your life.

Your present will endeavor to entangle you and snare you to try to keep you from realizing God's plan and God's will for your life. It will distract you with the problems and cares of the day. It will bog you down with the tedious details that must be taken care of. It will endeavor to tie up every waking moment with the effort to solve the present problems that are around you. But there is something about forward facing faith that forcefully compels you to set aside these present concerns and pleasures in the pursuit of a much greater blessing that has yet to be revealed.

This was the attitude of that little lady with the issue of blood. Her past said you've been sick a long, long time. You've spent all your living on doctors and remedies. You've proven over and over again that your circumstance is hopeless, the story has no happy ending. But she refused to listen to the voice of the past. Forward facing faith said, if I can just get to where Jesus is, there is still hope.

The bible tells us that there was a great multitude pressing in on Jesus that day. I can just here the voice of her present circumstances declaring to her that this is useless, there's no way you are ever going to get the attention of the master. He's so busy and he's surrounded by so many people. There's no sense in even trying. But forward facing faith said, "If I can only touch the hem of his garment..."

The scripture tells us that she pressed her way through the crowd to obtain the healing that she longed for. She pressed. Can I tell you this morning that the only way to loose God's promise in your life is to press. You've got to press for this thing, it doesn't come by accident and it doesn't happen by chance. The promise is yours but you must determine to pursue it.

The Psalmist said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after." That's the voice of forward facing faith. It is a singular faith that has a single desire for the promise of God. It says, "I will seek it as long as I live, and I will not give up until I obtain it." Its a strength of desire that outweighs all the things of this present world. It compels us, it forces us, it presses us into the promise that God has for our life. It is a faith that says that I won't be satisfied, there must be something better for my life!

Luke 16:16 declares to us that everyone that obtains the Kingdom of God possess that kind of faith. Its the faith that it takes to move the sinner from the pew to the alter. But it is the same faith that pushes a man of God beyond the mediocre and into the promise of God. It's a faith that we must have in order to even become a part of the kingdom of God. But it is also a faith that we must maintain if we hope to grow in the kingdom.

I'm afraid that this is where many miss out on God's promise for their life. They taste the fervency of forward facing faith at an alter of repentance, but discard that passionate pursuit somewhere along the way and settle for less than God's best for their life. It is my desire, this morning, to challenge you to pick back up that fervent forward facing faith and pursue, again, the promises of God in your life. He's not finished with you yet. As long as there's faith, there's hope. Peer through the prism of promise this morning and press for what you have not yet obtained.