Everything that you are going through is a testing of your faith. Not only to see if you have faith, but the genuineness of it. Some confess they have faith, but have no evidence or fruit of their faith. “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Abraham was tested to see if his faith was genuine. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.” Many are taught you don’t need to do works because you are saved not by works. You are saved for good works. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Your faith is being tested by fire to see if it’s genuine or if will you fall from grace and back into sin. “In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith––the salvation of your souls.” If there are no works that go along with your faith, then your faith is dead. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Doing works is not about going out to prove that you have faith. It’s as-you-go gospel. Look at the parable of the good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite walked by the man and did nothing. The good Samaritan saw and did something. The parable started when someone asked Jesus a question. “Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” At the parable’s end, Jesus explains that showing mercy is loving your neighbor as yourself. “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Your faith is being tested all the time. How you respond to everything is how you grow in faith. It’s not just about what comes against you, but will you love others regardless?
I pray that the eyes of your understanding are enlightened to the genuineness of your faith. I pray that we will all grow in the unity of faith. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Be blessed, my friends.