Faith… is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV).
Faith; this word has been the most difficult concept for me to practice in my walk with God and yet the most essential.
Hebrews 11:1 says to me that that my faith is the underlying basis of my hopes, which because of it I can be confident that even though I do not see certain realities they still hold true.
As an example, if I hope that one day I will own a nice bungalow what gives me the reason to have such a hope? Perhaps it’s because I believe that as I progress in my career my income will grow to a point where I can afford one. That belief becomes the basis for my hope. Even though I do not see the money now, I can remain confident that it will come to pass.
A more pastor-approved example, I hope that one day two of my closest friends will come to know Jesus. The underlying basis for this hope (i.e. my faith) is that I believe that God hears my prayers and since it is His desire that everyone should be saved He will bring it to pass.
Hence as a Christian my faith is that “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16), and also that God will provide for everything I need (Luke 12:22-32). This faith drives my hopes.
It sounds very lovely and simple until I have to live by it.
In a world where I have been raised to prize rational thought - to depend on my five physical senses to derive reality and truth, faith as defined above presents itself an anomaly that often contradicts my understanding of how the world functions, and this greatly confuses me.
Even though I’ve been a Christian for a long time, the world is very good at challenging my faith. So often I find myself not daring to hold on to the hope that I believe God has given me because the picture I see is stark and bleak. My rational mind takes over and tells me to give up, to do something else because what I hope for has no chance, very much like the Israelites in the desert. I used to think they were pretty dumb but I realize now they were just being ‘rational’. Of course I’d lose hope if there were no water for me while I was in the desert (even though God brought me there). Of course I’d complain and think God is crazy if he asked me to go and conquer a land that is rich, has cities with high thick walls and the people are huge and scary. It’s irrational to do otherwise.
And that brings me to what I think is the worst and hardest thing about our Christian faith, the fact that God requires us to live this irrationality out.
Faith would be so much easier if it went something like this:-
David: God, this Goliath is huge, well-armoured and looks like he can eat me for dinner. But I trust You will defeat Him for me. Amen.
God: I will help you defeat Goliath.
Lighting strikes Goliath dead.
David: Hallelujah! Thank you God!
But the biblical version of faith is actually more like this:-
David: God, this Goliath is huge, well-armoured and looks like he can eat me for dinner. But I trust You will defeat Him for me. Amen.
God: I will help you defeat Goliath. Now YOU go and face him in one-on-one combat in front of everyone.
David: Will you give me a big powerful sword that will shoot fire?
David: Armour that makes me invulnerable?
God: No.
David: Helmet….?
God: No. Just go.
David:……
I always wonder why faith has to be this hard. Why God allows the world to present such a bleak picture. Many of the disciples died for their faith, definitely not a ‘happily ever after’ image we come to expect. I’ve seen many a ‘David’ fall to their Goliaths, I certainly have experienced my own falls to my Goliaths.
Yet the Word of God declares victory. Imagine the faith I need to dare hold such a hope.
Is it reasonable for me to have that faith? How can I?
Hebrews 11 goes on to list the faithful personalities of the Bible. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and so on. They all lived by faith and overcame by faith.
How did they come to have that faith?
I read up on Enoch, “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:23-24).
On Noah, “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the rest of them we all know also journeyed with God, building a relationship with Him and learning to trust Him. They knew Him personally.
It dawns on me. Their faith and trust is based on a personal relationship with God. That’s why they were able to go through what they went through. God was a real Person to them, whom they could converse with, whom they could know and to whom they could ultimately trust their lives.
Another thought. To the question of why God allows the world to paint such a bleak picture, perhaps it’s because God knows the only way we would ever dare to hope is to have the essential faith to base it on. And that faith is only possible when we are in a personal relationship with Him. God wants me to walk with Him, to learn to trust Him. This is what separates our faith from the faith of others, a personal loving God who loves us personally.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:4-6)
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