The Easy Faithless Way

Verse of the day: Judges 18:1-2, In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them. 2 So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it. They said to them, “Go, search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

Here we find the men from the Tribe of Dan, the same tribe Samson was from (Judges 13), who are now seeking land to inherit. This is truly a sad statement when we stop and consider that they failed to conquer the land God had already given them. The territory given to them is listed in Joshua 19:40-46, “The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.” However, it was their lack of faith that caused their failure. Here we find them, instead of conquering the land given to them by God, looking for the easiest portion of land to conquer as an inheritance, as also recorded in Joshua 19:47-48. The Danites’ lack of faith is a perfect example of what happens when we lack trust in God and put more trust in our own abilities and gauge a situation or task based on what we see as humanly possible. We also see how little is accomplished for the Lord when we allow idols to become the focus of our lives. In the chapter we see hints of the Danites seeking God, but only superficially (v. 5). The seek the advice of a priest who is not a true servant to God, but one who serves men and idols (v. 5-6). Today, far too many of us serve God the same way that the Tribe of Dan sought to gain their inheritance…the easy, faithless, way. Had they conquered the land that was allotted to them, they would have demonstrated faith in the Lord, even though they would have had to fight hard. Sadly, they chose to give up their inheritance and find a land, Laish, that was easier to conquer, based on what they saw as their ability to have victory. As we serve God today, we must see this example of faithlessness and do just the opposite. Every task, every ministry, and everything that we do in service to the Lord is not always going to be easy. Far too often we only want to serve God within our own comfort zone, and we shy away from opportunities that will challenge us, require real faith, and opportunities that will give us the chance to see God work supernaturally in our lives. We scout out easier ways of accomplishing something for the Lord when He calls us to be sacrificial in our giving, whether of our time, talents, or material goods. This results in the loss of blessings. Many of us will never know, in this lifetime, how many blessings we have forfeited because we chose to be faithless in our walk with the Lord, and chose only to do those things that within the scope of what we perceived our human abilities to be. God made it clear in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith we cannot please Him. The danger of lacking faith is that, just like the Danites missed out on inheriting their lot in the Promise Land, if we lack saving faith and fail to put our trust in Jesus, trusting more in our own works to save us, we will be eternally condemned to Hell and the Lake of Fire, missing the opportunity to inherit Heaven. As born again believers, if we lack faith, we will serve God only in the areas we feel we can serve by our own strength, and miss out on many opportunities to be a blessing and receive heavenly blessings that can only be gained by living a life of faith. God wants to use each and every one of His children. He may not use us all in the same way, but we all have talents and abilities and a measure of faith given to us to use for His glory (Romans 12:3). That measure of faith is of no use to us if we do not apply it to those times when God moves us to serve Him in one way or another. The bottom line is that He may call us to easy tasks at times and at other times stretch our faith, especially during those times when the enemy opposes us. The one thing to remember is that regardless of how hard the enemy fights to stop us, the God we serve is far greater than the god of this world (1 John 4:4). Let us not always seek the easy, faithless way out, but seek to serve God in all areas, especially those that truly exercise our faith in Him. Those are the ones that will yield the greatest eternal rewards.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).