7 - Ultimate Loyalty: Worship in a War Zone | Lessons of Faith from Joshua

When we have the truth in our hearts – the correct identity, “I am a creature” – we automatically trust God and His Word. When we have the lie in our hearts, “I am God,” we automatically trust ourselves and other people – and believe their words.

God created salvation, which must take place in the mind. There, the conscience can be based on a conscious standard. We can trust this because it is objective and unchangeable. And so we ultimately place our trust in God. The inner struggle arises because the heart suggests false messages to the mind, which must contradict them, crucify the lie, and replace it with the truth through the Holy Spirit.

Important question: What must be in place for us to consciously trust God? The conviction that God is absolutely good, selfless, just, loving, and unchanging. Faith then relies on the fact that what is not yet visible will come. Who a person trusts ultimately determines their fate.

Why has God been acting so radically since Adam and Eve? He makes us aware that nothing in man is permanent: by bringing judgments such as the Flood or Sodom and Gomorrah, followed by Passover, the Law, the sacrificial lamb, circumcision, and feasts – all to show that something is wrong with human nature. Jesus destroyed the lie in the heart and created a new life.

We are given the choice of grace to set a standard in our minds using our conscience that recognizes that our hearts deceive us and that we trust in people instead of God. Through this choice, we identify the inner enemy and replace it with the truth, “I am a creature.” The question remains: What will you choose? This and more is covered in the seventh part of the series “Lessons of Faith from Joshua.”