Musings on Faith
By John C. Orlando, Jr.
Faith – What exactly is faith? I believe we can substitute the word “trust” for faith. Faith is not a force. It is simply an absolute confidence and trust in someone, or an absolute confidence and trust that some thing will most certainly take place. There are different kinds of faith. For example, there is the faith one has when he turns on the ignition of his car. He has faith, an absolute confidence that the car will start. Your faith that that would happen didn’t produce some force that caused the car to start, nor would your “faith-filled” words be the force that would start the car if for some reason the car did not start when you turned on the ignition.
There is also the faith one has that certain historical events have in fact taken place. None of these really describes fully the Biblical concept of faith. When the Bible says that we are to have faith, it is not saying that we are to believe that our cars will start when we turn on the ignition. The Biblical idea of faith can only be expressed toward something outside of the individual, and that “something” must be thought of by the individual as possessing the power to do whatever the individual is trusting it for. Thus, faith is really only as good as the object that one has placed it in. We will either have faith in God, the sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, Creator of the universe, or, we will have faith in something else.
When we have faith to “move mountains,” we are saying that we have absolute trust and confidence in the object of our faith, the sovereign King of the Universe, that He can do whatever we ask, no matter how monumental or impossible it may seem to us. If I have a faith that can move mountains, it simply means I have an unwavering trust in God and His power. I am agreeing with all that God says about Himself! It isn’t my “naked” faith that moves the mountain, as if it were some supernatural, mystical force. Rather, it is God who moves the mountain, and He moves the mountain in response to my faith in Him, and in accordance with His sovereign purposes. It could be said that my faith becomes “clothed” when my purposes become His purposes, and I come to Him in complete submission and offer my request boldly before His throne of grace with an absolute confidence that He is able to do that which I, or any other power, are powerless to do. My faith then is a means, not the force, through which He will accomplish His preordained plan.
Some people have the gift of faith, being able to trust God more readily and completely regardless of the circumstances, and they witness God’s sovereign Hand moving the mountains that others thought were so impossible that they wouldn’t even bother to utter the prayer to God. The difference between the person with the gift of faith, and the one without it, is the one with the gift of faith will trust God absolutely no matter what is going on around him. No matter how large or grandiose, or how small and trivial, the one with the gift of faith cares not about what he sees, and he is in no need of evidence, or a fleece, to believe that God can, and will, act on his behalf. Doubt is not an option. Doubt never even crosses his mind. When he doesn’t see a response to his request, and the mountain is still standing, he doesn’t throw his hands up in the air and say, “Oh well.” He knocks and doesn’t quit knocking until the mountain is either removed, or God has revealed a greater purpose for the mountain. He doesn’t lose heart if God doesn’t answer his prayer the way he thought God would or could. Instead, he trusts both in God’s awesome power and ability to do anything, and also in God’s omniscience, goodness, wisdom, guidance and Providence, and thus has absolute confidence in the fact that God knows best, and God will do what is best in the long run for those whom He loves and has called according to His purpose. He doesn’t just quote “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose,” but he clings to that promise as his very lifeline and blessed assurance, because he realizes that the promise reveals the absolutely sovereign nature of God.
To the person without the gift of faith, instead of asking, it is avoiding, instead of seeking, it is ignoring, instead of knocking, it is standing close to the door, hand raised, but never touching the door. He is moved solely by what he understands, and trusts only in what he can see. He has not the slightest want or desire for the miraculous, because the miraculous no longer happens today in this age of scientific enlightenment. He prays but ceases, believes in one God, but rarely trembles, and his modus operandi is skepticism and doubt. When he finally overcomes those obstacles, ever so briefly, and prays a prayer of faith, he expects the answer immediately. The answer must be the answer he was looking for, and it must all unfold precisely as he envisioned it. If it doesn’t, then to him God doesn’t answer prayer, and he might as well make better use of his time doing something in the “natural realm” whereby he can benefit in some material sense. Thus, at the heart of the prayerless person is a faithless person who is a selfish person. For the Christian to not be mindful of prayer is for the Christian to not be mindful of God, others, or himself. Click here to continue...