Faith

The writer of Hebrews defines faith for us: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”¹ Having faith in God means we are assured that he will act and are convicted that he is real—even though we cannot see him.  Many people argue that they need proof of God before believing that he exists. But there is no proof that would appease their doubting minds! And this is not a new thing.

“And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.”² Of course, this is after Jesus had fed thousands of people with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread, healed countless people of their illnesses, made blind men see and lame men walk, raised a couple of people (that we know of) from the dead, walked on the water, and calmed the waves and the wind with his voice. After this—and much more—the religious leaders wanted proof that he had been sent by God. What did Jesus say to their request? “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ So he left them and departed.”³

Jesus said No to their request for proof! And I think he was shaking his head and sighing as he left. The evidence that God is real is everywhere but we can only see it if we believe. Those who do not believe will never see it. We must believe there is a God before we are assured and convicted that he is real—not the other way around: assured and convicted of God and then believe in him. Faith comes first. And after that? “He rewards those who seek him.”⁴

But I must admit that faith is quite tricky. James says that if we want something from God—wisdom, for example—all we have to do is ask and God will gladly give to us generously! However—and this is the tricky part—James says “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”⁵ If we are uncertain that God will answer our prayer, then we will worry that he won’t. What happens when we worry? “For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”⁶ When we worry that God might not give us what we ask, we will not get what we ask!

Faith is hard. But having no faith in God is much harder! The result of being a person who does not believe in God is that he becomes “a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”⁷ Those are our choices: being single-minded and stable in all our ways because of our faith that God exists or being double-minded and unstable because of our faith that God does not exist. People who say that they have no faith are only fooling themselves. Everyone has faith in something; everyone has a belief system of some sort. Most people who do not believe in God believe in themselves. They believe that they do not need God, even if he did exist!

I understand that temptation. I sometimes choose to have faith in me—my abilities and my understanding of things—instead of letting God be in charge. And honestly, sometimes that works out fine! But mostly I find myself feeling “unstable in all [my] ways.” That’s why James tells us that if we want wisdom, we should ask God for it because his ways are always higher and better than ours—which leads me to think that even when things work out okay on my terms, I probably missed out on something greater had I trusted God with it.

I have faith in God because God gives me peace, makes me stable—and that’s proof enough for me.

¹Hebrews 11:1   ²Matthew 16:1   ³Matthew 16:4   ⁴Hebrews 11:6   ⁵James 1:6   ⁶James 1:7   ⁷James 1:8