LOVE AND FAITH

"John 14:9 (AMP) Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and do you not recognize and know Me yet, Philip? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, Show us the Father? So if you have seen your love for Christ, you have also seen faith in the face of that love.

Do you have a sincere desire to please Jesus or a deep sadness when you have done something that grieves Him? These are two veins full of the lifeblood of love for Christ. Your love can tell you news of your faith. John 14:9 (AMP) Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and do you not recognize and know Me yet, Philip? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, Show us the Father? So if you have seen your love for Christ, you have also seen faith in the face of that love.

But what if your love for Christ is hidden in a cloud? Then see if you can find some repentance, despising yourself with the sight of your sins and rousing you to hate these sins as the enemies, which have lured you into rebellion against God. For they are the bloody weapon which wounded God's name and murdered His Son. The grace you look for stands before you. What is love of God if not passion against sin as His enemy?

But sometimes you cannot see the love for the zeal or the fire for the flame. As by taking hold of one link you may draw up the rest of the chain, which lies under water, so by discovering one grace you may find them all. And while this sanctifying grace relieves the sincere Christian's doubt, it shames the hypocrite who grasps for one particular grace but shuns another.

The Spirit of God does not come into a soul with half of His sanctifying graces but with all of them. If your heart is set against one grace it proves that you are a stranger to the others. Love and hatred are of the whole kind; he who loves or hates one saint loves or hates every other saint. And the person who embraces one grace will find every grace dear; for they are as kin to each other as one beam of the sun is to another. There is a connection of the sanctifying graces in their growth and decay. Increase one grace and you strengthen them all; impair one and you will be a loser in all.”

Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617