I remember as a young Christian how intimidated I was by what I thought were very high Christians. I felt so low next to them. But then I met a few very humble Christians. I sensed that they were very near to God. They never stood over me with their religiousness but sat next to me with a simple and a humble faith. I felt God’s love through them.
I have learned that the more a Christian tries to impress you or teach down on you, the less they know God and the less that God can do through them.
For you who are younger in your faith, never feel beneath another Christian, nor allow yourself to be intimidated away from the Church. God will deal with the arrogant, you just remain humble in yourself and place your confidence in God.
For you who are more mature in your faith, be determined to never make another believer feel that they are beneath you, and only then will you will be effective for the Kingdom. Beware the religious spirit, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43).
Keep your faith simple. Be humble before men and before God. The higher faith is found by those willing to kneel lower. You will do more for the Kingdom in your simple humility than in any other way. You can reach a higher faith through a simple path of a surrendered and humble faith.
Here are some things below I have written on living a simple faith. I pray you would read them slowly and allow the Scripture used to settle in your heart.
Faith is not complicated, people are.
The more you simplify your life, the less complicated things will be.
The greatest moment in your faith comes when you realize it is not about what you can do, but simply what Christ can do in you. “…Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV).
Faith is simple, love God and love others.
It is not the higher truth you know that matters, but the simple truth you walk in.
The simpler your faith, the easier it will be to walk in it. “…what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NIV).
Never think a simple truth is beneath you. You may understand the complicated, but do you walk in the simple truths?
Learn to read and preach Holy Scripture like a five-year-old. Our adult mind complicates the truth until it is unbelievable.
Don’t be so grown up in your faith that you cannot simply believe. The Lord Jesus taught, “Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable, and learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, you will never be able to enter in” (Matthew 18:3 TPT).
The greatest truths are so simple that many people never see them.
Simple does not mean shallow. The deeper truths are the simple truths. It is in something as simple as water that we have such great depth you can never reach the bottom.
The secret to believing more is to stop trying to analyze the power out of God’s Word.
Stop complicating simple truth. You only complicate it so you don’t have to do it. The apostle Paul wrote, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness [complicating God’s truth], so your minds may be corrupted [turned away] from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV).
God’s word is simple, we are the ones who complicate it. We complicate it because we cannot believe it could be so simple. Many want the Word to be complicated that they would be elevated in their knowledge of it.
Scripture has the answers we need to overcome, we just don’t like the process that they propose. It is never that the process is too hard, but that it is too simple.
A simple faith is simply Christ in you. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living the life of trust. Test yourselves. Don’t you realize that Yeshua the Messiah [Jesus the Christ] is in you?…” (2 Corinthians 13:5 CJB).
Stop complicating truth such that you debate it more than you live it.
Man makes faith complicated, the Lord just says, “Follow Me”.
A simple faith takes you further because it is not weighed down by the complexities of man.
The simpler your faith, the more pure it will be. “…we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God…” (2 Corinthians 1:12 NKJV).
Believing is both the simplest and the hardest thing for us to do.
To grow in your faith is to lower yourself into a simpler faith. It comes not by knowing more, but simply trusting more. It increases not by changing more, but being willing to be changed more.
It is our pride that thinks we must do something more, but it is through the door of humility we find only Jesus can change us. “Yahweh watches over the simple. I was brought low, but he gave me victory” (Psalm 116:6 LEB).
The world’s idea of a mature Christian is one who knows more truth. God’s idea of a mature Christian is one who lives more truth. Knowledge can know truth, but wisdom lives it.
The proof that you have made your religion more important than God is in how complicated you have made it.
Religion is only complicated when you try to make it more than simply “Jesus Christ who died for you”. “For while I was with you I was determined to be consumed with one topic—Jesus, the crucified Messiah” (1 Corinthians 2:2 TPT).
Blessings to you,
Paul
Last night I heard this–“We always manage your feet.”
Truly the wisdom lies in learning the benefits of walking in His ways. Instead of continuing to stumble along in our own.
It also feels like walking into a consuming fire but finding you are still alive?! Wow.
Thank you. Beautiful things to ponder here.
Such a good word, thank you so much! What a precious thing it is for a saint, but to hear the Holy Spirit and be led of Him in this life.
And I agree so much with you, that the consuming fire seems all too much, until we are consumed and we find ourselves in the hands of God!
These statements quieted my soul.
Thank you, I pray His peace upon you.
I have always felt that’s exactly how we are to walk with Him… as a little child. I get frustrated when I “can’t understand The Scriptures” because I don’t always understand them the same as others. But by faith truly believe EVERYTHING written in God’s Word is relevant for me and this day!
I find it interesting that when Jesus was on earth, the ones who understood the depth and richness of Scripture the most were the Pharisees. Yet they had no idea who He was. And then there was Mary of Magdalene, a woman once filled by seven demons, and it was her that the Lord revealed Himself to first after being resurrected. Knowing Jesus is more a matter of the heart more than that of the mind.