I suppose before I ask this question, I should define “faith.” We all have it in one form or another. We have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow (though it may not shine so we can see it, we know it’s there for the light it produces). We have faith that when we set out to reach a destination, we will reach it. We believe in all sorts of things in this life, but that’s not the kind of faith I’m talking about. (But you probably know that, if you’ve read my blog for any length of time.)
I tend to define faith the way the Bible describes it, “being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.” Some might think believing in what we can’t see is rather naive, but we all do that too. We can’t see the wind, but we can feel its effects, can see its power. We can’t see gravity, but if we drop something, we know it’s not going to float unless we happen to be standing on the moon.
So to believe in Someone we cannot see isn’t such a stretch. And faith in the God of the Bible answers a lot of questions, if we choose to accept His Word as truth. It answers how the world came into being. It answers how the world is going to end someday. It answers what happens to us, depending on our faith, when this life ends. It explains that we will suffer in this world, and sometimes we will know why and sometimes we won’t. It explains the presence of evil and how it came to be. It confronts our brokenness and separation from God and how to fix that. It proclaims good news to those who choose to believe.
When I ask “How strong is your faith?” – I’m talking to people who know what faith in Jesus Messiah looks like.
Jesus told a parable when He walked the earth of a farmer who planted seeds. Farmers back then didn’t plant like I might plant a garden. I carefully make sure I hand deliver seeds into a specific row and carefully cover it with dirt. I know how many plants my little patch can hold, so I try not to overcrowd them.
But the farmer in Jesus’ day tossed seeds as he walked along his harrowed field. Some of the seed fell on that good ground he had prepared. Some fell to the sides of the field, on the road, among the thorns, etc. Of course, the only seed that grew tall and strong was the seed that fell into the field prepared in advance by the farmer. The other kinds might have sprung up, but they had no root, or they got trampled under foot.
Jesus equated the seed to the Word of God. The Word goes out into the world—the good news about Jesus—and everything His life offers us. And if our hearts are ready to receive what we hear, we become like that good seed that grew. And the longer we know Him, the more we read His Word and let Him speak to our hearts, the stronger our faith becomes.
Strong faith is harder to define than faith itself, but it means we don’t give up on God when life gets hard. When our prayers go unanswered, or they are not answered the way we would like them to be, we still pray. We have what Jesus called “shameless persistence” when we come to God with our needs. Just because He denies a request or delays an answer doesn’t mean He’s not listening. It also doesn’t mean He won’t eventually give us exactly what we ask for. He might not. But even then, we cling to Him because we know that He knows what’s coming better than we do.
If we give up on God, on prayer, on faith because we don’t get what we want, or because someone who claims the same faith hurts us, or because we think there is something better out there than this God who claims to rule the world, we lose far more than we realize.
Because the thing is? The other options out there can give us temporary pleasure. They can help us deny a lot of guilt. They can distract us from our anger, our frustrations, our grief. But the world and all that it has to offer can’t answer those questions I mentioned earlier. And one day when we face our mortality, we will realize that we might have accomplished a lot in our life, but we have nothing to look forward to in eternity. We won’t have the assurance of a God who loves us more than anyone ever could.
Strong faith trusts God even when…even if…even though…even through…because we have come to know God well enough to know that He will never leave us or forsake us. He keeps His promises. And if we are His, He doesn’t let us go. We shouldn’t try to give up on Him when He will not give up on us.
~Selah
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