Pressing
On
With
Allen Bach and Clay O’Brien Cooper
As told to Dee Ann Burkes
“I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:14
Faith in Action
Allen: It has really been impressed upon me lately how
important it is to mix your faith and belief with God’s word. Only when we read
his word do we really know what to base our faith on. I was reading my Bible
the other day in 2 Peter 1:3-4, where it says, "His divine power has given
us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very
great and precious promises, so that through them you
may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world
caused by evil desires." Everything we need that pertains to life and
Godliness comes from his divine power. It is so encouraging to know that
through his power he have everything we need. I almost
take that verse as the secret to everything. We have his divine power to rely
on to help us escape the corruption in the world.
Clay: Yes - God has empowered us with his own moral
goodness. That is an awesome thought. That power is there,
but are we using it is the question. Believing in that power and acting
upon it are what creates faith. James
Allen: That’s what it talks about in the rest of 2 Peter
1:5-8. It says, “For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith
goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self -control; and to
self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness,
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if
you possess these qualities in increase measure, they will keep you from being
ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
So that is saying right there that faith must be more than belief in certain
facts, it must result in an action, growth in Christian character, and doing
what is right, or it will die away. Just because we are saved doesn’t mean we
automatically develop perseverance or self-control; those require hard work.
But the good news is that if we choose to act on it, God has empowered and
enabled us to do those things.
Clay: That is the basic principle of being a Christian:
believing and having the corresponding action with that belief. You can use
that in every area of your life as it pertains to your life. If you are saved,
then you have faith in God and there has to be corresponding action in your
life to not do things based on your commitment to live a life of faith for God.
You are believing for things that Jesus bought and
paid for on the cross - health, healing, or financial prosperity. Jesus said
that by faith you can have what you ask for in prayer (Mark
Allen: Some people just don’t understand that God wants
good things for us. But he does! They think they aren’t good enough or don’t
deserve it. But that’s not how God sees us. We all need to start looking at
ourselves like God does. You’re not just looking at yourself in the mirror, you are looking at a divine creature made by God.
Jesus called us his friend and his brother. Because of the blood he shed, we
are a joint heir with Christ. We have access to all these awesome things. We
have access to the divine power - the power that helps us escape corruption, to
gain goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly
kindness and love. Through our faith in God and our access to his divine power,
he has given us the power to move mountains.
Clay: Again, he has given us that power, and now we need
to act on it. We can start saying what we want to have in life, what we want to
change tomorrow, a year from now or ten years from now. We need to start
speaking to the mountain, which is the very thing in our life we want to
change. If we want it to change though, we need to start talking about it and
acting on it. This concept isn’t that far removed from our natural life. If you
want a successful career, then you takes steps in that
direction. You go to school, get a degree, start a savings for retirement, etc.
Everything you do is set up for what you want down the road in your natural
life. Jesus says we can have what we say (Mark
Allen: And you know, it isn’t easy
to stay on track. Our human nature wants to rule. Without letting God in our
life each and every day we can get off track really easy. Our goal is to live a
life that is in the image of Christ. He is our role model and we should always
desire to be more like him. There are two sides to that though - we can always
think, "We’re always going to fall short. We’re not God, we’re
human...we’re going to mess up." I even get sick of hearing myself say
that. But the other side of it is - what a great goal to shoot for - to be as
Christ-like as possible. In a roping analogy, it would be like a beginning
roper watching Jake and Clay rope and watch them make it look so easy. Does
that discourage you - thinking you’ll never be that good? Or does that
encourage you and make you want to practice and press toward the mark of
excellence?
Clay: That’s where the action comes in. You can’t just
believe you are going to be a world champion and then sit in the house and
watch TV. You have to get out there and practice. And you don’t just become a
world champion the first day you start roping. You have to learn how to
practice, learn how to win, to build your confidence, etc. You build on your
ability day by day, just like faith. God doesn’t expect us to be great in faith
the minute we get saved, but to build on it throughout our life. Faith is the
result of believing and corresponding action. That is what is going to make
things happen in your life.
Allen: And we are going to struggle along the way. But it’s
important not to be afraid to struggle; don’t be afraid to mess up now and
then. Clay and I have had some misses on our way to winning world
championships. That is going to happen. My encouragement to you is not to focus
on the mistakes, but more on practicing to do the right things. If we dwelled
on the bad things, the mistakes, we would never have made our goal. God wants
us to keep going forward. It’s like he’s saying, "Why are you worrying
about your mistakes? I’m not. Just keep working on doing good
and I’m with you all the way." It would be like a basketball player
wanting to win the game, but never even shooting the ball to try to score a
goal. There are going to be some misses along with the successes, but keep
putting that faith in action. The action is what is going to get the results.
If you have any questions
or a response to this article, you can submit it to Allen and Clay via e-mail: claycooper@cactusropes.com or allenbach@cactusropes.com