How Strong is Your Rope?

By Bob Prichard       In his book, A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis said, “You never know how much you really believe until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?”     Consider three questions: What kind of faith do you have in God and His word? Has your faith been tested yet? Have you been in that situation where it is a matter of life and death, hanging over that precipice? If your faith has not yet been tested, you can be sure that the time is coming when it will be tested.     James said, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:17-20).     Is your faith dead or alive? “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (James 2:21-24). Abraham was ready. His rope held, even to the point of sacrificing Isaac. How strong is your rope? Will it hold? If not, now is the time to strengthen it!

- Bob Prichard serves as an elder and evangelist for the Hillview Church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2016. In his forty-five years of preaching he has served churches in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.