Faith

“For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us.” Psalms 44:6-7

Sometimes I have self confidence and I think that’s faith. And the thing with self confidence is that it’s a very, very frail emotion. It has all the appearance of strength, but it shatters at the first test. And God does test faith or whatever I claim as faith. I used to hate those tests because they always left me feeling lacking. Yet, God is a wise architect, and He has in mind to build things that last forever, so He has to use only eternal materials in His building.

It took me a long, long time to understand why my faith seems to work sometimes and other times not so much. I wish I could say I would have listened if someone had explained it to me, but I don’t think I would have. I have found that whenever I, the material used in the construction of His Kingdom, am trying to use Him to get my desired outcome, my faith can be as big as you’d like, and it still isn’t working. Faith in that faith is all I need to get such and such a thing, is a very twisted notion. Faith is all about the One in whom I have faith in, not about my determination to expect a certain outcome. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is absolutely needed. But faith in what? That me believing can grant my wish? Is it not about trusting the character and heart of The One in whom I believe? Lots of people have faith in all sorts of crazy things. Muslims have their faith and let me tell you it is strong. Jews have their faith and it is strong. Hindus have their faith and, my goodness it is strong. Buddhists have faith. People that worshiped Baal and Moloch had immense faith, the former had faith to the point of lacerating their bodies (1 Kings 18:28) and the later sacrificing their children to their god (Leviticus 18:21).

When the Assyrians took Israel in captivity and they threatened to do the same to the kingdom of Judah, Rabshakeh, the envoy from Assyria came and spoke before the leaders of Judah and basically told them, all the other nations I have destroyed had faith in their gods to save them and they are destroyed, them and their gods with them. “Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” And Hezekiah understands a very important detail, that it is not the human capacity for believing that makes a difference but WHOM they believes in, so he goes in the temple and sends men to the prophet Isaiah to inquire of The Lord (2 Kings ch 18; 19; Isaiah ch 36; 37).

Humans have faith. Like James so charmingly puts it, “Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19) The Way of Life is not about the faith itself, it’s all about the Person in whom we believe.

I used to read the story of David and Goliath and fancied myself as a mini David, facing the problems in my life with my stones of faith, and down goes the giant (1 Samuel 17). If only I can find the right river stones! I read books about where you get the best slingshot and the smoothness of the stones you need, I dreamed victory because some said it’s important to visualize it, so I did! But let me tell you a little secret, I am not David and neither are you. You can buy or fashion for yourself ten thousand slingshots, and train until you’re an expert stone thrower or whatever they’re called. You can spend all your time and energy on getting the words David said and say it just the right way, you’ll still be no match for the giant.

David was a shadow or a picture of Jesus. The only thing you and I can be compared with in that story is the army of Israel cowering in fear of Goliath. We were the ones that have been attacked. And the enemy had a giant that nobody could defeat. So we waited there paralysed day after day, for thousands of years, until someone came and took offense at the philistine’s scorn of His people. And we saw Him only as a child, so ineffectual, how can He talk like He can defeat the giant. We didn’t know that He was an expert at rescuing sheep from the mouth of lions and the claws of bears. With no magic stones, or magic slingshot, He faced our giant, destroyed his power, and because He did, we are free.

I don’t trust in stones or slingshots; I know they have no power. I don’t trust in my bow, and I know for a fact that my sword can’t save me. The Only One I trust in can do anything He wills. I trust Him because He’s worthy, all else is smoke and mirrors.

I have learned to not exhaust myself in trying to change His will, but to endeavour to submit to His will. I have days when I am so confident to go ask things of Him, that I feel like skipping through His throne room, and I have days when I go before Him like Esther went before the king, ‘I will go, and if I perish, I perish.’ Yet, no matter how confident or intimidated I feel, I go to Him, because I know, that I know, that I know, that I am approaching my Father, not some remote god that can do nothing. I don't go in my superstitions but in The Name of His Son, who has slayed giants to have me, so I KNOW that He will stop at nothing to wage war against anything that tries to separate me from the love of God.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Cristina Pop