FAITH AND MORE FAITH

Is faith truly faith if it only is measured by a fulfilled promise? I think the true answer is no. As the scriptures declare, “though he slay me will I trust him.” That doesn’t sound like the insight of someone that associated faith with the idea of seeing it fulfilled in one’s life.

While it is certainly true that to see the fruit of faith in this life can be satisfying and encouraging one has to wonder if that focus is not the one that dominates teacher and thinking. We want it NOW! Instant gratification is always something that appeals.

And that may work in life for some issues. But with faith to trust in God and keep trusting even when one doesn’t experience the fulfillment of a promise is the aspect of faith too many don’t want to talk about.

Yet it is a reality. And perhaps the abiding void in honesty on that subject can be appreciated as simple humanness intruding in the spiritual realm.

How often we judge and discern only using our eyes. We see a church that is ever increasing in membership and decide surely this is the hand of God. Or we listen to the tangential voices who proclaim we can have our heaven on earth and if we experience it that is the true measure of how much faith we have.

There are many different attitudes and opinions on what it means to trust God. But I can’t help wondering if some times our pride and ego dictate our opinion. After all, God see through the looking glass of eternity. He knows our heart and he is leading us to a point of an ever increasing need to trust him. That at times would be restricted or stunted if we were to realize the fulfillment of our faith in this life.

So just as those who were martyred for the faith and had to trust to the Lord that he would honor their faith in eternity we must face the constant burning issue of can we trust no matter the consequences. Too often I think the “textbook” answer and the one that stirs in the heart aren’t the same. We might with out lips proclaim how we will keep trusting, but somewhere in the recesses of our real essence there is that residue of pride that says we need it now in order to have the approval of others.

Thus is the dilemma, thus it the real choice each of us faces. To keep along the path of faith wherever it leads and regardless of whether in this life we end up with the Lord gracing us with some evidence of our labor and trust.

After all doesn’t it take more faith to keep one’s hand on the “plow” of trust every day when the sun of circumstance sweats away our zeal because we see no apparent fruit? The easy answer is we are all human and need that inspirational “wind” to keep the fire of faith alive. That may be the easy answer, but it doesn’t mean it is the one God intends.

Above all, the follower of Christ has to don those shoes of obedience that may not impress others, but are fitted to our lives by the Lord. The walk isn’t always comfortable or pleasant, but in the end when we step into the house of heaven they will still fit unlike those who took them off because it was easier to stop trusting by God’s way that our way.