Quick summary of last week:

We all have faith in something. We can choose to put that faith into anything we desire. Jesus, being the Ultimate of Everything, is the highest location for our faith. Our Altitude of Faith should be in Jesus.

Jesus. Isn’t He awesome? Because he is above all else, he rightly deserves our honor, trust, respect, love and yes, our faith. We may know that in our heads but how does that faith translate to our hands? How does having faith in Jesus play out in everyday life? Back to I John 5. I copied the first three verses here.

“1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,”

We can see the Altitude of Faith in the first verse, “that Jesus is the Christ.”

The last part of verse 1 and verses 2-3 give us the Attitude of Faith.

Attitude –

“manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind”

What is your disposition towards faith in Jesus? Do I have positive tendencies with regards to faith? My manner is evident of my faith, right?

The word love is used 5 times in these 3 verses. Let that be a clue as to what our attitude should be. Here is a little example.

When I went to North Central University, it was actually called North Central Bible College. Among my friends, there was one in particular that I remember. He was rather intense. We would be talking about a subject and he would often times use the phrase, “Chapter and verse.” He was asking for proof for my ideas. It was one thing to talk about something we had heard in class or Chapel. This guy always wanted to know what the Bible said. He wanted proof.

Remember, love is a clue since the author used it so many times in a short span.

While the object of our faith (altitude) is Jesus, the proof of that faith (attitude) is our action or love.

My dad often said to me, “You will always have time to do what you want to do.”

I have faith in Jesus. He was a perfect man. He was killed, buried and then raised from the dead. His sacrifice is enough to wash me from my sins. My life is now completely in His hands. I am free in Christ!

All of that is my Altitude of Faith.

I put others before myself. I serve at home and at church. I refrain from swearing or crude language. Drunkenness is not an issue. When the gossip starts, I leave the room. I smile even when I am having a bad day. I invite people to church. I sing on the worship team. I try to be the best version of me that I can.

All of this is my Attitude of Faith.

Go back and read those three verses again. Our actions stem from God doing something that we could not. I DO NOT do good things to get something from God. I do these things because He has already done something for me.

This post is not about doing good works to get saved. But rather, it is about doing good works because you are saved.