May 26th, 1962 “Real Faith in God” Late Mr. N. Daniel

II Chronicles 15: 16 “And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being the queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.”

A prophet came to Asa and warned him. The Lord is with us while we are with Him. In a way, God is always with us but His presence is more and more evident if we are with Him. If a child is with the mother, the cooperation becomes more and more evident and life becomes very smooth. Asa was very successful in the beginning. He even removed his mother from the position of being Queen-mother and destroyed the idol that she had set up. As years went by, he departed from the Lord and did according to his own thoughts and finally came to depend on Benhadad, the king of Syria. We do not know when our attitude towards God changes. Our heart is very deceitful and so we must be very watchful. Suddenly our heart shifts its faith from God to man. That is a great insult to God. No man can take the place of God. Abraham's story was very different. He also made mistakes and deviated from God in taking an Egyptian wife and getting a son through her. But later he lived more and more according to the Word of God. Is our life progressively dependent on God and our faithfulness increasingly true?

Some have great success in their spiritual life in the beginning, and then gradually get self-confident and turn away from God. Asa, during sickness turned from God to doctors. Very early our faith shifts from God to man. But as Abraham grew older, he depended more and more on God. God asked him to be perfect and gave him a new name. Then angels came to his house and Isaac was born. Abraham began to depend even more on God. Then came the sacrifice of his only son, in which he enacted the actions of God in advance as it were. Abraham who started with a faltering faith grew stronger and stronger and his wife also grew by cooperating with him. It is very easy to shift our faith from God to man. We must see that our dependence on God is growing continually, and also our faithfulness to Him. Let us not become self-satisfied. We shall grow into perfection.

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