Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
How do we access God’s plans for us? As we said yesterday, by faith. If we look at all the referenced scriptures we will read what His Word says. How to access the truth in those scriptures is a matter of faith.
Did those disciples that left Jesus in John 6:66 have faith? They certainly thought they did because they were Jews and had been taught that their faith was the true faith. So why did they leave Jesus?
John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Many times what happens in scripture is explained in the preceding verse. Perhaps those that left Jesus did so because they realized they were not called by God the Father to believe in Jesus. Perhaps.
Let us clear up one issue before we judge these Jews who left Jesus. Jesus had not died on the cross and resurrected from the dead at this point in His ministry. That event was the game changer. We have no idea how many of these that left Him might have come to believe by faith after the Cross.
What does that have to do with lost sinners today?
We have no real way of predicting just what it will take for a lost soul to feel God has called them to believe. All we have are His Words and our faith.
By faith I believe that God the Father will capture every last lost soul who will accept Jesus by faith. That does not relieve me of the responsibility to activate God’s plan for my life to serve Him by faith, the same faith that saved me.
Faith does not do just one thing and is then done. It activates His plan, our future and our hope.