Pretend Faith Does Not "Go In"

But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to go in. [Deuteronomy 1.26] 

This is what pretend faith does. It goes along with the plan until the plan encounters difficulty. It's all "Go, God!" until it finds itself in the middle of the desert with no food or water. Pretend faith makes for great conversation, lessons, sermons and motivational books until there is no humanly-explainable way to accomplish the impossible task at hand.

Pretend faith depends on common sense and human reasoning. Pretend faith stops at the idol of life instead of worshiping only the LORD God Who gave that life. Pretend faith is all good until life is on the line and suffering and death are threatening. Pretend faith has no vision beyond physical death.

Pretend faith makes excuses for idolatry. Even worse, it justifies idolatry. And even worse still, it blasphemes the very name of God in its justification of idolatry by claiming idols are 'gifts from God.'

What does it mean to "refuse to go in"?

It means to mitigate financial crisis bowing to the idol of debt (man's solution) refusing to trust God alone.

It means to mitigate material or physical loss bowing to the idol of insurance (man's solution) refusing to trust God alone.

It means to mitigate health issues bowing to the idol of medicine (man's solution) refusing to trust God alone.

It means to mitigate physical or mental limitations bowing to the idol of technology (man's solution) refusing to trust God alone.

The "go in" part is real and genuine faith. Pretend faith gets us to the threshold, but real faith goes right on in (while, for all we care, suffering, loss, or even death itself can be damned).

Pretend faith only carries one to the point of suffering. Real faith carries one through suffering to victory that can only be attributed to God (think "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" - Daniel 3.16-18). Real faith, in fact, furthermore sees death as victory.

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” [1 Corinthians 15.54-55]

So, we must ask ourselves, "Is my faith pretend or real?" Our compulsion (or lack thereof) to mitigate our hardships with man's solutions (costly idols) reveals the truth.

Father, may my faith be found real as I "go in." So be it.