Do you have faith?
I have been thinking about faith lately. Here are some of my thoughts.
The author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament defines or describes faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV).
Faith allows us to believe promises made to us in Christ and to trust with certainty that these promises, even though they have not fully come to fruition, will come about as promised. Matthew Henry (b. 1662, d. 1714), a Presbyterian pastor, writes about faith in this way: “Faith is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all He has promised us in Christ. This persuasion gives the soul to enjoy those things now; it gives us a substance or reality in the soul, by the first-fruits or foretastes of them. Faith proves to the mind the reality of things that are unseen by our bodily eyes.”
As I think about faith in light of Hebrews 11:1 and the words of pastors like Matthew Henry, it seems to me that faith has three elements, two of which are mentioned above and one that is assumed.
First, faith is the belief that a promise that has been made is true. God makes His children many promises. In Christ, we are promised freedom from sin and death and a resurrected life. In Hebrews 13:5,6 God promises us “Never will I leave you or forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (after Deuteronomy 31:8. See also Isaiah 41:10-13). In Matthew 21:21, 22 Jesus makes His disciples a bold promise “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt…you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Jesus makes many other promises to His disciples. But, all of these promises are included in what I believe is His ultimate promise: the Kingdom of God is here (although not in its fullness), also called the Kingdom of Heaven. Through the work of Jesus, we have the right and privilege to enter the Kingdom and live in an intimate relationship with Him. In the Kingdom of God we find the abundant and eternal life that all of us yearn for. “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things (all the ‘things’ promised by Jesus) will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
Second, faith is about trust. While the promise of faith applies to the present, it also has a future component. Not only do I beliveve it for now , but I put my trust in it for the future. For example, the Kingdom of God is here in the present, but Jesus promises that the Kingdom of God will come to earth in the future in it’s fullness in the New Jerusalem found in Revelation 21 and 22. With faith, we trust that will happen with assurance. Healing and wholeness are our gifts from Jesus to be experienced now, although not perfectly. They are the first-fruits. In the Kingdom in the future “the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3, 4). Healing and wholeness will be total and complete. Even though we cannot fully see this promise, we anticipate it with certainty and that certainty changes how we live our lives now. In a sense, this promise is a prophecy from Jesus for us.
A promise or prophecy about the future that you believe and trust can change our life in the present. Suppose you are hired as a new employee at a large company. Shortly after you join the company one of the Vice Presidents takes you aside and says (or prophesies over you) “in 20 years you will be the President of the company.” As crazy as that sounds, let’s say you believe him with all of your heart. That belief will probably change the way you conduct yourself in the company in the present. You will be fully invested in your work, energetically and enthusiastically learning all you can about the business the company conducts. You will seek the good will of all the employees, especially the younger ones. One day you will be their boss and you will depend upon their loyalty to you and the company. You will read about leadership, learn about effective management practices. And probably a lot more. Your life will be different because you had faith in the prophecy.
The same is true for Christians who have faith. Because they believe the prophesies or promises of Jesus they live their lives in freedom and without fear. They say to the world “take your best shot”. I know that Jesus will be with me, He will never leave me or forsake me, and I have access to His power to push back against the darkness of the world that comes against everyone. The promises of Jesus are mine – He will be my strength, kindness, compassion. In Christ, I am accepted and valued, no matter what. These are strong promises which will change my life if I receive them.
Also, when storms come I can stand against them because I know the future. A storm is losing your job, being diagnosed with cancer, learning that your spouse is unfaithful, having a spouse or child die, or any of a thousand dire calamities that life throws at us. In Luke 8:22 Jesus teaches His disciples about storms and faith. In this teaching Jesus gathers His disciples and says “let’s go over to the other side of the lake” (referring to the Sea of Galilee, which is really a large lake) A huge storm blows up and the waves sweep over the boat. The boat is in danger of sinking and the disciples cry out “Master, Master we are going to drown” (“we are perishing” in the Amplified Bible). Jesus, who is asleep in the stern of the boat, gets up. He rebukes the wind and waves. The storm subsides; all is calm. Then He turns to the disciples and says “Where is your faith?” Exactly, where was their faith? They forgot about the promise, the prophesy, if I can call it that. “Guys, we are going to the other side”. Or, in other words, “we will make it to the other side”. If they believed in that promise or prophecy, they would not have been afraid. They would have done all they needed to do to keep the boat afloat, but they would have operated out of necessity, not terror. Note that in spite of the promise, there was something they had to do to keep the boat afloat: bail out the water.
The third idea is not mentioned in the definition or description of faith, but I believe it is implied: faith requires obedience, even surrender to the one in whom I have faith. It is not enough to have faith, I have to do what the one I have faith in tells me to do. If I am on the fast track to be the President of a company, I better obey the company policies. It might even be necessary to make the business of the company the most important thing in my life; I may be required to put the needs of the company ahead of my own, even if I have a family. If being President of the company becomes my ultimate concern, I will probably have to surrender my life to that goal. Jesus tells me He will not forsake me, but what if through my disobedience I forsake Him? What if after accepting Jesus as my savior, I chose not to let Him be my Lord? Faith means I have made a decision to believe, trust, and be certain about promises made to me personally. I can’t get to that place of real trust if first I have not surrendered.
That is what faith means to me. It is a present trust/belief about a future occurrence. Faith gives me power. In this life I get to taste the first-fruits of that future; the fullness of the promise has not yet been received. But it is coming!!
In my next post I want to talk about faith on a different level. So far, I have couched faith in Christian terms; that is, faith in the promises of Jesus. I am going to try to make the case that everyone has faith, even if they don’t know or believe in Jesus.