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.
