The couple knelt beside their young son praying for God to heal him. Soon the young lad raised his head up from the altar and proclaimed, "God has healed me!" They rejoiced together. They believed that God had healed their son of his diabetes. They went home and threw his medications away. Soon after the boy became ill. It was obvious that he had not been healed. Nevertheless, they continued to withhold his insulin. "God is testing our faith", they said. The boy eventually feel into a diabetic coma. When confronted by authorities, the parents insisted that God would awaken their son, for they had faith. When the boy died, the parents continued to proclaim their faith telling people that, "God will raise our son from the dead." Both father and mother are now in prison serving a life sentence for murder. They tell the story in the book "We Let Our Son Die," and there they confess their abuse of faith.
Most, if not all, have one time or another misused faith. We probably have not suffered the heart breaking results this couple did. Nonetheless, we like they, often wave our faith in God's face thinking that it is the means by which we get God to give us what we want. We go to God reminding Him of Jesus' words, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move," Of course He will give us what we ask. Jesus said that if we pray in His Name that God would "give us the desires of our hearts." We treat faith as a "spiritual magic wand." We wave it and God does what we want.
The problem is in our understanding of faith. We know that faith is essential to the Christian life. One cannot be a Christian without it. We are "save by grace through faith." "Without faith it is impossible to please God." The righteous live by faith. But, faith is not the means to get what we want from God. It is not a spiritual token which we put into the heavenly vending machine so we can make our selection. It is crucial for us to have a proper understanding of faith.
The writer of Hebrews defines faith as, "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) This definition does not clear things up real well for many of us, so the writer put faith on display giving us examples of faith revealing what it is and how it is to be used. Ponder with me about this essential element to Christian living and gracious gift of God.
As we read through Hebrews 11, we quickly realize that in each recorded incident, faith was a response to God. It was not telling or getting God to act. Rather, God spoke, revealed, told and in faith the person respond. "By faith Noah, when warned..." "By faith Abraham, when called..." In every case faith was response. God initiates and faith answers by obediently acting upon God direction. Paul, in Romans 10, speaks to this as well. Here, dealing with saving faith, he states: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?"
Before we flex our faith, let us be sure we have heard from God. And when He has spoken, let us wholeheartedly respond - "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
More to come...
Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry