Faithful

"Both His faith and ours solely hung on the faithfulness of God."

GOD WILL REACT to a spark of faith. It isn’t that He is looking for perfect faith (perfect as in without flaw). We’ve given this perception to people, that they must “come up” to a certain height before God will heal or repair. No, He is gentle and kind and of great mercy. He will heal with the tiniest amount of faith. He delights to provide. Instead, we are all given THE MEASURE of faith, and that measure is Jesus. Every child of God has 100% of Jesus, so it isn’t the amount of faith that we are ever lacking. The strength or weakness of our faith is based upon use, and our “use” comes from our confidence in God, who answers faith, and what we say. We listen to the Word of God on repeat, soaking in its truth, and it changes our thinking which changes our heart which changes what we say. But what we say comes from our trust in God who wrote the Word, who spoke the Word, who anointed the Word, who is the Word.

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22)

A child trusts their parent to do what they have promised. When Mom says she is making supper, the child expects to eat. The child’s dreams of what they will eat are because he knows his mom does what she says she will do. We have taken faith apart and removed God from it. It has become a gift card purchased at the corner store which we must work to put money on, and until we have filled it, it is worthless. No, God is looking for the tiniest crumb of faith, and He will take that crumb and use it to bring the answer. It may not be an immediate answer because He is going to help us walk by faith and mature in faith. But whatever the reason for what seems to us like a delay, we can know God sees our faith and uses our faith at whatever strength it is. He, in fact, fills in the gaps where we come up short.

I’ve had Him do things for me that I was completely ignorant of. I didn’t know I had that problem and needed that answer, and now, it stretches my faith to believe with greater intensity in His mercy. I don’t need to worry about the things I cannot see, what the enemy is plotting, or what potholes may or may not be in my pathway. I have faith in God’s protection of me. In effect, I no longer worry about faith. It is like breathing, and this is what God wants for us. We inhale and exhale and that air keeps our bodies functioning. We read the Word. We spend time with our Savior, with our Father and the Holy Spirit, time in Their presence, and who They are becomes so real in us, that when we pray, asking for what we need, it is in faith.

The thought that we must have a certain size of faith actually ruins our faith. The idea we have to strive to use our faith also ruins our faith. Faith is an easy thing, part of our new heavenly nature, and God gave us all the faith we’ll ever need. But faith without relationship with God, without knowing His love for us, is weak faith. He is the reason for faith. Abraham is our example. He had faith. When asked to leave his home and travel to a place he did not know, he trusted God and went. When told he would have a son with his wife, Sarah, although he faltered along the way, in the end, his faith produced Isaac. He had faith in God when he laid Isaac on the altar. He’d told his servant THEY, he and Isaac, would return. Hebrews tells us that he even believed if he had to slay Isaac, God would resurrect him. Abraham’s faith was in who God was, that He was faithful.

“And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” (Genesis 22:5)

“Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” (Hebrews 11:19)

The Old Covenant Law, on the other hand, was the works of men, physical rules and sacrifices, which could never produce redemption. When Jesus came to earth to fulfill it, the people had grown so used to their own self-sufficiency, a mental checklist, if you will, of what all they’d done to follow the Law, that they missed the presence of God staring them in the face. Man’s faith in himself will always result in failure because it is God’s power that brings the results and knowing God that calls upon His power to work on our behalf. In the story of the woman with the issue of blood, it is commonly taught that she heard of Jesus (hearing produces faith) and she spoke, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole (Mark 5:28),” showing her faith. And though this is true, neither hearing nor touching were what healed her. It was that it was Jesus she sought.

Jesus’ response also speaks to us. When He felt the virtue (power of God) go out of Him, He asked, “Who touched me?” and His disciples wondered what He was talking about. “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me (Mark 5:31)?” Jesus, we are told, did not reply but looked around Him for who had used their faith. We must seek the Healer, seek God’s presence, through reading the Word, through hearing it taught, and through time spent in worship, and learn His voice, for He is always speaking, then our faith will grow because our love for Him will grow, and we will believe in Him. Not in faith. In God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Faith is not an inanimate object but a product of the life of God in us.

“We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane …” (1 Timothy 1:9 BSB)

The cross was a crossroads from the Law. The Law, a life of rule-keeping meant to display sin for what it is and give man hope toward a Savior, became Liberty through the cross. Not as freedom from holiness and morality, as some believe, but as freedom from sin to preserve holiness and morality. It was a crossroads from the power of God, under the Law, sought in an intermediary, through priests and sacrifices, into the power of God in each believer because of the cross. No longer is God “out there” or “up there,” but He is “in here.” We are the temple where God resides, where the Resurrection is on permanent display, and the faith of God which enabled Jesus, our Savior, Lord, and King to lay down His life, knowing He would take it up again, lives in us.

He is alive because of faith. We are children of God because of faith. Both His faith and ours solely hung on the faithfulness of God. He is God, and He proved faithful. All the results of His salvation, the fullness of it, are then ours through His faith. As Romans 8 says, If God would send His only Son to die for us, if His love was so great, then why wouldn’t He give us everything else? He will, and there is the strength of our faith. In a loving God who would do so much, even far more than we could ever ask or think.

“Now, trust comes from our understanding with God, because he has demonstrated that he is trustworthy to fulfill what he has promised. And by trusting in him—the one who made the promises—we are confident of what we hope for, and are sure of what we do not yet see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Image by Mila Okta Safitri from Pixabay


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com