owning your faith

So, what does this mean? To own your faith?

• 1 Peter 2:2—"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation…"
  

This verse is not implying that we must work in order to obtain our salvation, but rather (in my opinion) that we must long for the "milk" or Word of God in order that God may transform us into the likeness of Christ. How are we to know the Father if we do not spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word—His 66 book love letter that He wrote for us?! To own our faith is to long for the "milk" He feeds us daily.

• Philippians 2:12—"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"
  

Again, this is not implying that we must work in order to obtain salvation, but that we shouldn't be complacent with just being snatched from hell. To know Christ and Him crucified should be our goal, and working that out—truly knowing Him in that way—should cause us to tremble, joyfully.

• Hebrews 5:12-14—"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."
  

This was me my freshman year of college. I grew up in the church, knew all the right answers, but I was still feeding on milk, not solid food. I was complacent in my salvation, but I didn't know what it meant to truly feed on the Word of God. I had no idea that the Bible could be true meat in my life; that it could make me literally stronger day to day.

Owning your faith is just that, making it your own. For years I lived off of the faith of my parents and grandparents. I knew Jesus, but I trusted my family for feeding me the Word rather than picking up the fork and eating it myself.

This is a challenge to my brothers and sisters that are struggling with digging in to the Word of God. Consider this—would you go one week, voluntarily, without eating anything? How about drinking anything?

If we're honest with ourselves, most of us would not.

So why do we go so long without picking up the Bible?

I feel like this is a topic that is beat to death sometimes, but it's still an issue amongst my generation.

It's time to step up to the plate and own your faith.

 

Keep on keepin on-

K