Presumption or Faith?

I am sure you have seen many people express their faith through the years. It is good to express our faith publicly.

I remember several years back when a friend who had signed up for AmWay publicly stated she was going ahead with her order of a new Rolls Royce. I remember thinking that it was a bit over the top! Of course the idea flopped and car was never ordered, but how did that statement make her appear? A bit presumptuous?

The Lord encourages us to express our faith but what is the difference between presuming upon the Lord, and having faith in Him?

Over the last several years, Christianity has finally come out of the "prosperity preaching" movement. We've all heard them say how much we will be blessed by the Lord if only we will send money to the "Prosperity Preacher"! So the poor souls who sent them money really believed those people. How sad. To presume our wishes upon the Lord in a mistake. Sometimes it's an honest mistake.

So what is faith. Faith is when we believe God will keep His promises. We read His promises in the Bible and we trust He will keep His word! It's as simple as that. But to assume we will get anything we want by just stating our request to the Lord is to be presumptuous. We should never assume that because we ask something in prayer, that God is somehow obligated to grant our petition. He is not. But again, if He has stated it in His word and we believe Him for it, that is not presumptuous, but is indeed faith!