What is FAITH?

So after years of living as a non-believer (and an adamant one), and now years living as a sold-out believer in Christ, I have to talk about faith. Faith faith faith - the thing that this whole deal revolves around - but seems so intangible to so many! What is faith? How can we apply faith? Does it matter? After all, we stood up in front of the church and got dunked in the baptismal, right? Isn't that all that counts?

Well I guess it depends on what you want. Or better said, what you expect. When I read the Gospels, I get hungry for what Jesus taught! He rebukes His disciples for their lack of faith when they cannot heal, admonishes them for not calming a deadly storm, assures them that they will do greater things than He with faith & the Holy Spirit. Yet we seem content with just knowing that our ordinary secular lives won't end in a lake of fire. Personally, I think He was hoping for more for us - a WHOLE LOT MORE.

So what can faith in Christ do? What does having faith make possible? Well according to Christ, with faith like a mustard seed, we could send obstacles into the sea. We could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, cast aside the darkness of the world, free captives...even ourselves...or our family members. Think for a minute, what if you could overcome disease through faith in Christ? What if you could protect your family from evil? What if you could overcome fear & self-doubt? Would you want to be able to do that?

It sounds so impossible doesnt it? Well that is because the simple fact is that you and I have a LOT of faith. Most of our existence is defined by what we believe in. And easier way to understand this is to ask ourselves, 'what do we expect?' Expectation is just another name for faith, and it reveals that we TEND TO NOT be placing our faith in Christ. We believe that murderers and rapists could get us or our kids, and we expect that we and they are at risk. We believe or expect that cancer is in our future since it was in our mom's. We believe that when the doctors say terminal, that is the end of the story - we expect to die as they describe. See our faith is very strong - rock solid - cut and dried. It is just placed in something other than Christ's promises, Christ's teaching, Christ Himself.

So get down and dirty and analyze your thinking about fear. Why do you EXPECT to be rejected by other people? Why do you EXPECT your husband or wife to be unfaithful? Why do you EXPECT harm to come to you or your family? Isn't it really because you believe the lies of the enemy, that you are worthy of nothing good? Isn't it really because you DO NOT BELIEVE God is capable of working here, today, in your life and in your situation?

God is so explicit about the consequences of our unbelief, of our skepticism, of our fear. How many times are we admonished to 'Fear not!'? How many times did Christ ask an individual if they believed He could heal them before He did anything? This position of our thinking, of our expectations, REALLY matters in how God impacts our reality! Could Christ have healed, raised the dead, if they had denied His ability to do so? The Gospels answer that question and tell us explicitly that where he was denied, in His hometown, He could not work!

Wow. Think about that for a second. Does our expectation of rejection, disease, harm, impede Christ from working in our lives? Why would we ever expect it be any different?

But instead we get all 'spiritual' about the matter and try to cite God's 'will' as the reason we fail, die, lose family, lose battles. Seriously? Do we pretend to be so insightful of God's heart that we can live failing unbelieving lives and then blame God when we have explicitly refused to give Him access and power over our own hearts, souls, and circumstances?

So how do we live it out differently? How do we claim & exercise FAITH in CHRIST and all that offers? Well for starters we have to get educated. What does God want for God's people? If you cannot answer that without hesitation, do some research. God wants God's people to claim Him, to love Him, to rely on Him and to put down ALL OTHER things we believe in more than Him. Yep, it's the first commandment. And only after that come the promises of what will happen when we do this seemingly simple (but more complicated) thing. Get into the Word - read it - get excited by it. Yes, it is for you, today, now. God can do more now than ever if we believe - if we expect it!

And yep, you've got a part to do too. You cannot feed the lies of the enemy! You can't watch a bunch of tv shows about anorexic models and then blame God for not giving you a positive body image. You can't devour porn and concurrently challenge God to work in your marriage. You can't watch/ read murder mysteries and wonder why God hasn't taught you about His protection. We have a VERY peculiar notion that our relationship with God is quarantined into places we like it to stay - church, when we have company over, want to look pious etc etc.

So suck it up, and get with God now IF YOU WANT WHAT GOD IS OFFERING. Every minute that you struggle, simply return to God. Choose what you believe and then pursue it as though everything depended on it - because it really does. That, my friends, is called worship. It isn't a time, it isn't a church service. It is an attitude of the heart towards the righteous, eternal King of creation. And it is a choice. For whatever reason, God saw fit to make us free. Free to live with our weakness and misery or free to surrender to His incredible power and become His follower. As a parent I wonder about His logic on this one, but I don't have to understand it to know that it is true. And I for one, am ALL IN on worshiping the risen King by believing the my life is His great delight, that He works all things together for good, and that He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.