Faith works by love

…the only thing that matters is faith working through love. Galatians 5:6 (netbible.com)

Both Faith and Love are spiritual forces. And because they are spiritual, they work from the heart, not from the head.

KatieLyn got into trouble with her faith because she began to listen to doubts in her head. Faith can still be at work in a person's heart even when doubts begin to arise in the mind. The Bible tells us to cast down doubts and thoughts which oppose God. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

It is possible to have faith in your heart and doubt in your mind—for a while at least. But if these imaginations, as the King James Version translates it, if these lofty arguments and opinions are not cast down from the mind, if a person chooses to brood over thoughts that oppose God or to doubt what He said, then before long, all the faith that person once held in his heart will be destroyed.

Faith works by love, and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart.¹ Keep that in mind as we go back and pick up a point from the August 5^th post. 

Remember that KatieLyn wrote: "I put my relationship with Joe ahead of my relationship with God, and that was my biggest mistake." That sounds all noble doesn't it? Until you remember that God had given KatieLyn a relationship with Joe as an answer to prayers. Scorning God's gift and His answer to prayer is a pretty big mistake too! 

When a parent gives a child—when anyone gives anyone, actually—a gift, it pleases the giver if the recipient takes delight in the gift. God is no different in this regard. He was not mad at KatieLyn for enjoying her relationship with the man He'd chosen for her husband! I do not know why an emotionally healthy person would feel guilty over that. And even if it were true, if she did put her relationship with Joe ahead of her relationship with God, then the spiritually healthy, correct response would be to apologize and fix it, not run off in the middle of the night and punish Joe for her mistake by never speaking to him again.   

KatieLyn's biggest mistake was letting head-reasoning dominate instead of being spirit-led. That eventually destroyed her faith. The "I put Joe ahead of God" pretext was a rationalization that she concocted as a justification for running away.  

The world says that it is "smart" and "good" and "right" to reason things out in your head. But whatever is reasoned out in the head will always be second-rate knowledge to what God tells you in your heart. Reasoning things out in your head gives the enemy a point of entry. The devil can put thoughts in your mind, which is why scripture admonishes us to pull down the reasonings that are exalted against the knowledge of God.

God wants faith. He wants us to trust what we have heard Him say. It wasn't Joe that got between KatieLyn and God. It was her entertaining doubts about what God had said that broke her connection to God. The love of God had already been shed abroad in KatieLyn's heart.¹ God had already put a love for Joe in her heart.  

Somehow, KatieLyn took to the notion that questioning the love that God had already shed abroad in her heart was the right thing to do. It was a well-intentioned counsel warning her "to be sure." But it was a warning given with such fear that it scared the faith out of her. Faith is a force that works by love. It does not work by questioning what the Lord has previously revealed.

1 Corinthians 13:6, 7 says that love "rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, and hopes all things." KatieLyn was questioning truth, not rejoicing in it. She was abandoning love, not bearing it. She was doubting, not believing. Love believes, but she'd embraced a feeling of hopelessness for her marriage.

The Lesson
Yes, she was separated from the love of God, but no, Joe did not cause that separation. It was her own thoughts and actions that broke her connection with faith. Faith works. What KatieLyn did, didn't work. It was not faith. 

¹See Romans 5:5