It’s clear from the definition that sincerity is all about you and your good intentions. I’ll say it again because it’s a crossroad: Sincerity is all about you and your good intentions. And that’s one reason why it is different from faith. Faith is about the covenant of Jesus Christ, not ourselves and our good intentions. I’ll dive more into that later, but for now the take away is that sincerity is carnal minded, not covenant minded.

It’s in our nature to want our sincerity to count for something and it’s just another way of being true to one’s self and that’s why God has to challenge it, especially now, in this season where people are putting a lot of stock and confidence in their sincerity.

So where is hope placed when it’s connected to sincerity? The desired outcome is to be relieved of suffering and to find a haven of rest in God, to believe that you can confidently place your trust in God to protect you and see you through.

This all sounds right to the carnal ear because hope is sincere. But this is when God speaks up to say that the heart should not be trusted.

Jeremiah 17:9
 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

The heart of man weighs favorable outcome because it reflects need and want instead of true faith. True faith works with a different foundation.

A relationship with God built on the foundation of problem solving, needs, desires and circumstances is a foundation that will never hold up.

This carnal hope is way off base of what God planned when He sent His only begotten son to redeem mankind.

The perspective of the natural man is very loud because our needs can be very demanding and that’s what Satan wants us to focus on and he links sincerity and need are together to build a bridge for hope.

An article by Apostle Eric vonAnderseck titled Need vs. Faith touches on some of these same points: “This way of starting faith off with the problems of life (adverse circumstances needing to be resolved, doubts and fears needing to be conquered) seems like the right thing to do because the conscience is still defiled and is crying out for resolve, for substance, for completion. This is because faith has been geared to answer the cry of the defiled conscience, so when either an offense or an aspiration arises, the powers of the soul are called upon to serve the will to settle the conscience.”

Now let’s define faith. Since faith is part of God’s character, purpose and plan it’s vital to define faith from God’s perspective. Faith from God’s perspective is linked to Jesus’ new covenant. God describes faith as our obedience, willingness to yield and submit to God’s commandments, voice, plan and pattern.

Apostle Paul refers to Abraham as the father of our faith numerous times and it’s for good reason. If Abraham was only moved by sincerity (deeply desirous for God’s protection and provision) then he would not have considered that faith is about covenant, and he would not have taken any action when God came to establish a covenant with him.

Genesis 17:9
“And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.”

If Abraham confused sincerity as faith, he would’ve said something like, “Wow God. Thanks for that. I hear you and I feel that you are with me.” Abraham would have moved on with his day with no regard to what God commanded, putting no action to God’s expectation. And we see in Genesis that is not what happened (Gen. 17:10-14).

For us today, under the new covenant, the desired outcome when hope is connected to faith (obedience) is to gain the fruit of Jesus Christ. How does that play a role in the reason for the season? The role that it plays is focus. When our focus is on fruit bearing that shifts our perspective and what our mind labors with.

When the natural man is the first responder to the daily news, the focus is on circumstances and outcome. Are we mulling over the possibility of a vaccine? Or how the pandemic will impact the economy?

What about the upcoming election? To mull means to think about (a fact, proposal, or request) deeply and at length. To mull those things over and over is exhausting and offers no peace or rest. There is no rest when the mind is caught in the never ending loop of thoughts that pertain to man’s fallen nature. Rest is assigned to the covenant that was given to us by the blood of Jesus.

Matthew 11:28
 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

When faith is from the foundation of truth not only is it living, but rest, peace and completion is experienced.

I’d like to end with an excerpt from another article and this one is by Teacher Maria vonAnderseck, Faith is Not a Conniption Fit: “In that God gave us Jesus Christ as the token of His love for us, He works from a place of covenant. That might seem strange to you if you are working from a place of desire. You might have thought that all you had to do was pray to God for your soul to be remodeled after the likeness of Christ and trust Him to do the rest. You might have thought that all you had to do was have a strong desire for all God has for you and trust that God would do the rest.

In truth, you need knowledge for faith. The knowledge of the new covenant – the spiritual tools of the new covenant – and the priesthood of the new covenant. The covenant is God’s storehouse. When God talks about His mercy and care for you, He’s drawing from this one storehouse. So, you need the truth of the new covenant to draw from the same storehouse.”