I am learning more and more about faith each day. In the past, faith–as I understood it–was the ability to muster up enough belief in something that it would come to pass. “If you just had enough faith…” Faith, I am learning, is more than what you believe–it’s how you respond according to what you believe.
Faith is perfected through testing. When things come crashing in all around you, faith is what you stand on. When all of your “religion” and formulas begin to crumble, faith is what’s left. You can read about the great people of faith in Hebrews 11. It talks about how they believed God was good no matter what happened to them.
I thought about Job. Here was a man who lost it all: his family, his possessions, his health. All his friends reasoned and assumed his suffering was because of sin. Job, on the other hand, did not lose his faith. He trusted God, even if God was going to slay him (Job 13:15).
Then, there’s Jesus, the ultimate in suffering. His faith was perfect, yet he was tested. Even when his friends deserted him and the cross was ahead, his faith was that God knew what he was doing. He trusted God. He trusted his Father. He had faith that through his suffering, God would be glorified.
“We have around us many people whose lives tell us what faith means. So, let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. Think about Jesus’ example. He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him. So, do not get tired and stop trying” (Hebrews 12:1-3).
Prayer: Father, sometimes it’s hard to stand strong when things all around me are crumbling in. But, I know that faith is holding on to you when I don’t feel like holding on. Faith is choosing to trust you when I can’t see clearly, think clearly or even do things correctly. Give me the strength I need to trust you more.
