The Faith I Need
Doesn’t have to be expansive. It need only trust God completely.
“…For truly, I [Jesus] say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20b (ESV)
I have this tendency to want God to prove himself to me and if he does then I think I will obey him.
Of course it doesn’t work this way for the most obvious reason being that it cannot. When I put God in the position to have to prove himself to me, then at the same time I put myself in the position of judging God. This, at best, can only work badly.
So how can I ever come to believe in a God I cannot see?
I see the problem as I once saw it, as the most difficult of dilemmas, and I also see it now, having come to believe his existence to be more real than my own. Now it all makes sense.
So what changed?
Once I came to the realization that my own life under my control was a complete mess and that every other explanation as to how life actually works was a fraud, I was left with one of two choices. I could change the subject and pretend that nothing is real, true, or worth wasting the little time I had left in this world (relatively speaking) to pursue my pleasures, or I could ask for help.
It’s very different asking for help rather than demanding answers and proofs. For one thing it admits my own reality. I may not have known anything about the existence of God, but I knew a whole lot about my own, and that alone, at least for me, was enough to get me to admit I was in no position to scoff. Perhaps those strange Christians, who appeared to be living on a happier, more joyous and free level than I was at the time, were onto something. That small step of faith opened up a new path I was unable to see before and that started my journey toward the God I could not at the time see.
Does this make sense?
What do you think?
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
I think it makes perfect sense. As the psalmist says in Psalm 46: 1“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” But we have to believe He is, and ask Him into our lives. He will never force it.