Finding Faith

The way Jesus works in our lives and the way He chooses to do things is often past our comprehension. It’s mysterious and usually takes faith and patience, because His timetable is often different from ours. Living the Christian life requires faith and trust, because we’re not the ones in control—Jesus is. We have to remind ourselves constantly that He knows best, that He does all things well, and that His priorities are often different and much more long-term and “big picture” than ours.

Even with all of His awesome promises—promises like, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He [will] give you,” “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,” and “If you have faith, nothing will be impossible for you”—we have to remember that we can do our part, but we’re not the ones calling the shots. We’re not the ones with the bird’s-eye view of the past, present, future, and master plan for eternity. We can put Jesus on the spot and we can harness all the spiritual power He has put at our fingertips, but ultimately it is His will that must be done. Jesus is in control, and He knows best.

It’s so important to keep an attitude of simple trust in Him, as otherwise we can struggle with so many questions when things don’t turn out the way we were hoping or the way we prayed they would.

There is so much in the Bible on this topic, as well as throughout the writings of men and women of faith from the past 2,000 years—and of course Jesus can also still speak to our hearts today. Every now and then it’s good to stop and reflect on the various reasons why Jesus works the way He does, why things don’t always turn out the way we’d like, why every prayer isn’t answered in the manner we had hoped, and why life is sometimes harder than we think it should be.

If you don’t strengthen your faith, life can seem pretty hard for no good reason. When that happens, you can start to feel that it’s your fault, that you must be doing something wrong, that Jesus must be displeased with you because He isn’t answering your every prayer as you want Him to, or that maybe the promises He’s given don’t actually work “as advertised.”

The devil is always trying to tear down your faith. His job is to try to get you to doubt God’s Word. I’d say that’s his number-one mission—and it started way back with Adam and Eve in the Garden, when he asked them, “Has God indeed said?” He wanted to get them to doubt God, and in that case his charms and half-truths worked.

In addition to the devil’s constant attempts to hurt your faith, you’ve also got human nature working against your faith, because faith defies logic by requiring you to believe in something that is unseen, for which you have no tangible proof at the time. But the more you study God’s Word, the more your faith will grow.

In time you will find many wonderful promises and explanations that answer age-old questions such as why it seems like God doesn’t always answer prayer. But the fact is that life, with all the difficulties and trials and times when prayers seemingly go unanswered, will continue to be a test of faith. It will always be so until we get to heaven.

Whenever things are rough, whenever you feel that they’re not turning out the way you’d hoped, when you feel your prayers aren’t being answered, when the trials of life are a little too much to bear, when the battle seems too long, when your faith is under attack, when you’re feeling weary and aren’t sure if you can take much more, climb up onto the rock-solid foundation God has provided for your faith through His many promises and encouraging words, and rest in that safe haven.

Don’t try to answer all of the devil’s lies and accusations yourself; let the Word answer for you. Take comfort, also, in the fact that this battle isn’t uniquely yours. It’s one that every Christian of all time has had to reckon with, and the answer is the same today as it has ever been—trust in God and His wonderful ways. You can’t figure it all out. Instead, encourage yourself in the Word and relax in the comfort of knowing that Jesus has everything in His hands. Rest in Jesus’ arms, let Him shield you and support you, and in God’s time the storm will pass.
One day, while browsing in a bookshop, I came across an encyclopedia with a section of Bible-related articles. I was curious to see how a secular scholar might depict the great men and women of the Bible, so I began to read some of the short biographies—the prophets Daniel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah; King David; Samson; the apostles Matthew, Peter, and Paul. …

One after another, things I had accepted as fact were brought into question: Three people may have written the book of Isaiah; the apostle Matthew may not have written the Gospel of Matthew; Paul may not have written some of the epistles that have been attributed to him. On and on it went. With phrases like “mythological symbolism,” “legendary accreditations,” and “obscure visions,” the author went on to explain in great detail how every book in the Bible was flawed or shouldn’t be taken literally. Adam and Eve should be thought of as “symbolic prototypes of mankind.” The book of Genesis was merely “a way for certain authors to express their theories on the origins of human life and cultural identity.”

I had only skimmed a few pages when a hollow feeling settled in my stomach. Part of me wanted to close the book, but another part kept flipping the pages, looking for some statement that reaffirmed my faith in the Bible. Then my eyes fell on the closing sentence of the entry on Jesus Christ. “In all the inevitable questioning over the biblical account of the resurrection of Jesus, one fact seems beyond dispute: Jesus’ disciples were prepared to stake their lives on its veracity.” And so have countless others down through the ages, I might add. The author, in his scholarly attempt to debunk God’s Word, couldn’t explain away its power.

I felt vindicated, then ashamed at how little faith I had shown just moments earlier. That closing sentence had driven out and slammed the door on the doubts that had entered and tried to take hold of my mind.

I realized then why so many people still have faith in the Bible, even after reading books like this encyclopedia, which undermine faith through their skeptical and narrow views. It’s because through the Bible they have come to know its true Author, God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

God is alive and well; Jesus not only rose from the dead, but He now lives in every heart that invites Him in; and the words found in the Bible are alive and powerful. How do I know these three things to be true? Because I have experienced them for myself. I believe the Bible because I have seen its effect in my life.

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Matthew 15:28 ASV – Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Hebrews 11:1 ASV – Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

1 Peter 1:21 ASV – Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
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Hebrews 13:8 NIV – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Matthew 17:20 ASV – He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ”

Matthew 14:31 ASV – Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”