Dear friend: what is faith?
April 14, 2010 | Faith: Knowing Christ, Q&A: Dear Friend
Dear Suzie,
I get it. Faith is not entitlement. It’s not demanding from God what we want, or trying to make scripture conform to our wants. But what is it really? Is it spouting words that don’t match the condition of my heart (because of unbelief or doubt)? Is it believing in the impossible when all around you reality says it’s not going to happen?
I want to be a person who has faith, but how can I do that when I don’t even know how to define it?
Dear friend,
Thank you for asking this important question. It’s one I have wrestled with as well.
Faith is believing and trusting in God.
Isn’t that simple? And yet it can get confusing because sometimes people try to make faith about expectations.
God, give me the career/ministry/relationship desires of my heart.
God, I want my marriage to be fixed.
Father, do you not see the debt collectors at my door?
Lord, heal me.
And when it doesn’t happen in the timing, or the way that is expected, they wonder “was it because I didn’t have faith?”
All of the above are reasonable requests. But faith comes when we look beyond what we want to walk with God through them. Our trust shifts from what we want, or even need, to a confidence that God sees what we need, that he sees our marriage, that he sees the direction of our lives and that He’s firmly in control.
I was sick a few years back with cancer. “Oh Suzie, you have such great faith,” one friend said. The reality is that my faith level was at an all-time low. Every report said that my chances for living a long life were low. I was scared of suffering.
But I found tremendous peace in the God who was the same that day as He was the day before I found out I had cancer.
I placed some faith in my physicians. I placed some faith in the needle in my hand pumping chemo through my veins. I placed some faith in the love of my husband, my children, family and friends.
But the real measure of faith was that regardless of the outcome, God does not change. That I could find strength, direction, shelter, wisdom, peace…in Him. When I was weak (and there were lots of those days) I was strong.
James 1:5-8 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Sometimes the verse above is taken out of context. It’s why people create doctrines that say if you profess words that it’s faith. You stand in the face of circumstances and say, “I’m not sick. I’m not sick.” or “My marriage is not rocky” or “I am financially secure” when debt collectors are knocking at your door. These individuals believe that unwavering faith is “blind faith”.
One of my favorite stories is that of the three men facing the fire. The king had ordered them to be thrown in it. They stoked it seven times hotter. One man tending the fire had already died due to the heat. They could have stood there with the flames burning their skin and said, “there is no fire, there is no fire”, but they didn’t. They weren’t blind to what was in front of them. They bravely faced the fire, trusting God.
And then the King saw someone in the flames with them. They weren’t alone. Jesus took them through the fire and to the other side.
To me that’s the epitome of faith. We see the reality of what is in front of us, and we know and trust that God is walking with us through it.
I believe in asking God for great things. I pray over my family. I pray for direction. I pray for the sick. I pray for those who don’t know Him, and whose life could be transformed by that knowledge.
But I also know that when I trust God I grow and learn from mistakes that might have put me in the fire. It might mean gaining a deeper perspective (if you ever go to an impoverished country you will see that our expectations might sometimes look different to God).
It might mean that I grow in character and trust in God as I lean on Him in the fire.
It might mean that God takes me in a new direction, and step by step I trust as I follow Him.
Faith is asking God, from His vantage point, to give you wisdom and then to confidently place your trust in Him right where you are today, and believing He’ll be there tomorrow, too.
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my pastor just talked about this last week and he said something powerful about faith that has revolutionized how I think of faith…
Faith has to have an object. The object is someone’s word or promise. Pistuo in the GK = to “rely” on; to lean on. There is no such thing as “blind” faith. Faith is our determination that what God says in His word is worth putting all my reliance and trust on.
This was so powerful for me – the fact that we actually are relying on SOMEthing… leaning on, trusting on… like we sit on a chair because we have faith that it will support us. So we put our faith in God and what he has said to us – we lean into Him. Ilove that
April 14th, 2010 at 1:17 pmAwesome explanation. That is all I can say.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:22 pmYou are right. Blind faith is an oxymoron. Thx ladies for this awesome input.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:26 pmThis is so empowering Suzie. I appreciate lessons like this. Thank You God.
April 14th, 2010 at 7:51 pmAmen, knowing what is front of us, then walking through it. Powerful point sister!
April 14th, 2010 at 9:53 pmThank you for sharing, Suzie.
My favorite part of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego’s story is when they answer the king with confidence. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
Through the toughest storms, it has been my prayer to have faith that remembers God is able, regardless of my circumstances. I pray my heart seeks God’s will more than my desires, trusting His plan more than my fears, clinging to His Word more than my feelings. I praise the Lord for carrying you through your battle with cancer, knowing you are using your testimony for His glory.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the same comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
I am thankful for your faithfulness to the ministry He has called you to, sister.
With love and prayers,
April 15th, 2010 at 2:44 amXochi