THE REFINEMENT OF FAITH

 

 

 

We want more faith along with the feelings of confidence and strength that it brings, but we often find ourselves overcome by worries and feelings of vulnerability.

 

The Apostles also felt this way and asked Jesus to increase their faith. Surprisingly, He answered that they already have enough faith. Even the smallest measure of faith would be enough for them to remove trees and mountains:

 

·       And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (Luke 17:6)

 

Faith wasn’t a question of “How much” but of our understanding of our relationship with our Savior. Jesus continued in His revelation about the nature of faith:

 

·       “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

 

What we receive from God is based upon understanding how we don’t deserve His blessings. Even after we have been perfectly obedient, if that were ever possible, we must understand that we don’t deserve anything good from Him (Romans 6:23). Instead, it’s all about His love and grace for those willing to accept their unworthiness and dependency upon our Savior.

 

However, Jesus’ answer still left me with the question, “Why don’t you grant us a greater sense of faith and assurance so that we don’t struggle so much?”

 

Perhaps we need to suffer and struggle to make room for faith:

 

·       In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

 

We must be emptied first before we can be filled. Our faith requires refinement, and suffering provides the flames. Gold is refined by melting it down so that its impurities are freed to rise to the surface and removed. Likewise, the flames of suffering cause us to confront many unpleasant things about ourselves. Through this process, we see our unworthiness but also the overriding love of our Savior since it becomes clear that we do not deserve Him.

 

Through our own meltdowns, our inflated self-concept and sense of entitlement rises to the surface, and we begin to see it for what it is - self-deception. Therefore, we adore Him even more for loving us - the undeserving.

 

This process is like breaking up and cultivating the soil so that it can receive the transformative seeds of the Gospel. If we were always shielded by the glowing feelings of faith and God’s protection, these seeds would fall on fallow uncultivated ground. Instead, daily we are coerced to seek the assurances of the Gospel to endure the journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

 

Faith requires us to patiently endure, even when it feels that God has failed and forgotten about us. Faith is also the recognition that we are inadequate. Instead, it is a daily decision to wait on the Lord, even when all our thoughts and feelings rise up in rebellion against God. Faith is an exercise of trust, as we recall how He has delivered us in the past (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

 

Scripture warns us that we must faithfully persist even when we see no evidence of His deliverance and no way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). When Abraham saw no evidence to hope, he hoped in faith:

 

·       In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” (Romans 4:18)

 

To believe, we must also recall. Abraham had recalled the faithfulness of God. This enabled him to offer up His most beloved, his son Isaac, assured that God would provide:

·       By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17–19)

 

Do not be discouraged that you seem to lack Abraham’s faith. His was a faith that had been refined over perhaps 50 years. I’m sure that he suffered with the same feelings that we too have. However, his years had convinced him that God would provide.