Chapter 4
Faith: The Elusive Virtue

False forms of faith
It needs to be considered very carefully how some people go off on tangents concerning faith and suffering. A line of reasoning that is often brought to someone in pain is, "God wants you to be happy doesn't He?" To such a question virtually any person in misery will answer "Yes." "Well then, pray a prayer in faith for the disease to be removed. Remember, the Bible says, 'It shall be done unto you according to your faith.'" This tantalizing way of reasoning is actually an abusive way to treat the one who suffers. Anyone in pain loses some reasoning capacity and is therefore susceptible to arguments of this kind.

The fact is that nowhere in Scripture are we called to seek happiness as a primary goal in life. In fact we are hard pressed to see anywhere in Scripture that we are called on to pursue pleasure. What we are constantly exhorted to do is to pursue holiness. If we set this as our goal instead of happiness, I believe that happiness, or contentment will follow. For as we fulfil the will of God for our lives, we shall find peace and joy that nothing in this life can destroy. When the apostle Paul says, "Rejoice always," he says it in the context of exhorting his readers to be disciplined, subject to spiritual authority, praying always, offering thanks in every situation, following the Spirit's leading, and so on. Surely if we are doing these spiritual exercises, we will not be able to help ourselves, we shall rejoice, we will be happy.

Abraham's faith
As we consider the most dramatic moment in Abraham's life, it is obvious he had great faith in God. This scene is used elsewhere in Scripture as proof of Abraham's faith. Abraham trusted God in a most difficult situation and God honoured him for it.

The proof of Abraham trusting God is seen from the fact that there was no arguing with God's unusual providence. There is no evidence that Abraham rejected God's will nor that he argued with Him. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham told his servants that he and Isaac would go worship and they would then return. So, Abraham believed that both would go to the place of worship and both would come back. The writer to the Hebrews tells us (11:19), that Abraham believed God could raise Isaac up from the dead. We do not know when in this scenario Abraham came to this conclusion, but somewhere between the commission from the Lord and the departure of Abraham and Isaac from the men near the mount, he decided that if the boy died, God would raise him to fulfil His promise concerning Isaac's offspring.

If we are to have faith as Abraham did, there are several things to consider. What does it mean when the Bible says that "Abraham believed God"? What is faith? What is involved in trusting God as He commands us to do?

Faith involves knowledge of a message
First faith has an intellectual component. In the case of Abraham, he understood that God had said that through Isaac, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God had revealed Himself to Abraham and told him that he and Sarah in their old age would have a child and that through this child many nations would be established. Abraham understood what God had promised.

In Romans 10 we read where Paul argues for the necessity of an intellectual component to faith, when he says "How shall they call upon Him of whom they have not heard?" The question carries its own answer. For people to exercise faith, they must have been given a promise. The promise of the Gospel is, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." People must hear that promise and understand that it says if we call upon the name of Jesus Christ, we will be saved.

Faith involves acceptance of the message as true
This brings us to our second component of faith, the matter of persuasion or confidence in the truthfulness of the facts or promise given. To have an intellectual comprehension of the message and to be persuaded that it is accurate are two very distinct things. The jury listening to the conflicting evidence of witnesses in a trial is supposed to grasp the essence of what each witness is saying, then decide who is telling the truth. Many people hear of the Easter message and understand that the early church preached Jesus and the resurrection. However, they decide that the message is bunk and reject it as nonsense.

Faith involves trust in the message personally
But there is a third element in true faith that is crucial. You see, up to this point, even Satan believes. He knows the message of the church concerning the Gospel. And secondly, he is fully persuaded that it is true. Oh yes, the devil himself is orthodox in belief to that point. This next element is where he and so many falter. It is in the area of trust or reliance.

Our part is to bring to Him the promise and plead for its performance. Abraham's confidence in God's promise extended to the miraculous if necessary. So he knew that his Father in heaven would perform what He had pledged. This matter of trusting personally was expressed many years ago in a line from a hymn which says,

Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let none other trust intrude

The prepositions used to speak about true faith in Christ are instructive. In Acts 16:31 the Philippian jailer is instructed to believe "upon" (Greek word "epi") the Lord Jesus. The imagery there is of Christ bearing the believer up as they place themselves onto the Saviour, or rest upon Him. The most beloved Gospel verse of all, John 3:16, uses another preposition when it calls on people to believe "into" or "in" Him. The idea is of motion from outside Christ (where we stand condemned), to inside Christ, or inside His sphere of activity (where there is safety).

I well remember on my 7th birthday being taken by my father into a bicycle store and him telling me that I could have any tricycle I wanted! We were a family rich in love and poor in finances, and such an extravagance was unprecedented! I immediately seized the biggest one there. It was far too big, my father tried to talk sense to me, but it was no use. He had promised and I held him to it. Well, I still do not know how he paid for that thing, but he was as good as his word. Even at the tender age of 7 I knew my Dad did what he promised. So it is with our Father in heaven. His promises are good. We may venture into them as we learn of them and accept them as true.

True faith is based on promises
We must accept the fact that suffering is something God has for all of us as part of His will for our lives. Paul writes to the Thessalonian Christians and says, "We… sent Timothy, our brother… to establish you… concerning your faith: that no man should be disturbed by these afflictions: for you yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto" (Thess. 3:1-3). Jesus told His followers, "In the world you shall have tribulation" (John 16:33). Therefore for us to pray that suffering cease, we must expect that sometimes the prayer will not be answered as we wish.

It is not sinful to pray and ask God to give us some relief in suffering, nor is it sinful to ask that the cause of our sorrow be taken away. What is sinful is to demand that God relieve us of our sorrow. The example of our Lord in Gethsemane is to the point. He prayed and asked that the cup be removed. So may we. But when our Lord saw that the cup was not taken away He took it and drank it. So must we. If our prayers do not see the removal of the source of suffering, we are to follow the Lord's example and drink the cup of sorrow.

The apostle Paul had such a situation when he prayed three times that the "thorn in the flesh" might be taken away from him. What he discovered was that the Lord would not remove the source of suffering, but would provide adequate grace to sustain Paul during the awful time. Paul knew that there were no promises that all believers would have their personal millennium during this lifetime, therefore he prayed without a specific promise which stated that all "thorns in the flesh" would be removed.

Faith feeds on adversity
It is far more in the trials of life than in the good times that we grow strong in faith and give glory to God. Those who prove most useful in the work of the Lord tend to be those who have gone through the deepest trials. Adversity shapes our character into the image of Christ as nothing else can do.

I recall very well visiting a personal friend who was dying of cancer after a nine year battle. She had fought a brave fight and lasted much longer than the doctors thought she could. As she reflected on her long and weary battle she said to me, "Gordon, as I look back on the past nine years, I can honestly say that the darkest times when I walked through the deepest valleys were also the times of greatest intimacy with God, they were mountain top experiences."

Time and again, I listen to people tell me that while they would never have asked for the suffering they have endured, they would not have missed if for anything because they know more of the Lord now than they ever did while in safe and secure situations. Spiritual maturity comes only through the stretching of our faith in trials.

It is not that we are to seek pain and misery. No, that is not put to us as a goal in life any more than we are offered as a goal the pursuit of happiness. We are to seek personal holiness and the knowledge of God. If the Lord sees fit to take us through difficult times to accomplish those goals, then let the sorrow come. As long as we honour the Lord and are drawn closer to Him, it matters little the cost involved, the reward is that great.

This is, of course, where some break with the faith. They do not believe that the cost of following Christ is worth the reward. As Jesus says, "When affliction or persecution arises because of the word, they immediately fall away." (Matt. 13:21). Elizabeth P. Prentice puts it well in her hymn entitled, More love to Thee.

Let sorrow do its work,
Send grief and pain;
Sweet are Thy messengers,
Sweet their refrain,
When they can sing with me-
More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee.

How curious it is that two modern hymnals I consulted did not have that verse in the hymn, I had to consult one published in the last century. Does that not make an interesting comment on the mentality of our age?

So, while we may be required by God to walk a difficult road, we have many assurances that He will walk with us and keep us. We shall overcome the world because He has overcome the world.
The feeblest saint shall win the day
Though death and hell obstruct the way
"And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith."
1 John 5:4.

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