Tangent

Faith in God

Joshua 23:14 "...and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed."

I recall one history class in my first year one. Mrs. Somerville was covering the basics of every human religion and asked the question, "How can we have faith in something?" We were all perplexed by this question and our poor answers called for clarification. “How can we have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow morning? We don’t know the future so how do we know that the sun will rise tomorrow?”

One of the students in a moment of simple-minded brilliance answered, “Because it usually does.” *bingo*

Mrs. Somerville followed up with the question, “So then how do we know that God will be faithful to his promises to us?” Because he always has been faithful to them.

This discussion worked to secure what my idea of faith was. Faith in God was not an irrational trust in him. I had always thought that I was really putting myself on the line to have faith in God (a faith I now doubt that I had at the time).

So often when I look at one of the great martyrs or apologetics of our age, I am tempted to think “I can never have faith like that.” As if the essence of faith depended on the volume I’ve attained. The truth is, the amount I have is completely unimportant. The important thing in faith is not its volume. The important thing is its object.

When we focus on our own faith, it always seems we are lacking in it. When we focus on our God, we will never be better off.

So who is this God that we have faith in?

Jeremiah 32:27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

Exodus 6:6-8 Say therefore to the people of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.'"

Exodus 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Isaiah 43:11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.

Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

Psalms 81:10 I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

This is the God we have faith in. It’s some wonder that we take any credit at all for the faith that we have. Our faith and trust in God is not in the least bit about us. Our trust in God is an impulse we have when God in his mercy reveals himself to us. We have faith because we have seen what God has done and have seen who God is.

So since we have seen God’s faithfulness on display time and time again and most clearly on display at the cross, how can we not trust Him completely? If only our remembrance of God’s faithfulness would be a permanent state of ours would it be so hard to trust Him?

posted by pedro del piero at 9:38 AM | 2 comment(s)