Mea e 'ai e tatau ma le aso
“He went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8)
Whenever we go through trials in our lives, we reflect on those in the Bible with similar experiences for an example in faith. In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is shown in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family.
When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their unfaithful worldly viewpoints. It means having the confidence that your faith will be sufficient for the both of you.
This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26. Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading you. And trusting that He will take care of all your daily needs, through your faith in Him. Trusting that He will take care of your family & children, through your trust in Him.
It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reasoning why?—a life of surrender and trust, knowing Him who calls you to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of Christ, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world. These are wrong motives, for faith is a gift from God. He will fill your need, not your greed.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of Christ like character, and we will encounter many challenges in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday worries and the glory or first love vanishes.
A life of faith is not a life of one glorious experience after another, but is a life of day-in and day-out process of testing to attain consistency; a life of "walking without fainting". (Isaiah 40:31).
It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test.
Abraham is not a example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on his love and trust in the true God. “Abraham believed God ” (Romans 4:3)
Ia manuia,
failauga p. anoa'i
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