Faith in God when life is difficult. 2

There are two kinds of promises in the Bible, conditional, and unconditional promises.  Unconditional promises are ones in which God has promised to do something irrespective of how we may respond. An example of an unconditional promise is Hebrews 13:5b: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  On the other hand, the conditional promise has a certain criterion which needs to be true of us to have the assurance that God will keep the promise.  Romans 8:28 is a conditional promise because it says that God will bring about what is promised to “those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Why is this promise specifically directed towards those who love God?

Earlier in the chapter Paul has been referring to those who have the Spirit of sonship, that we are children, and “heirs and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17)  “We are eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (v.23)   This is what we are hoping for, and waiting for.  Furthermore, the Spirit helps us in our weakness enabling us in our praying even interceding for us in our weaknesses. (v.27)

It is in this context of a new relationship of sonship with God that we have the promise in verse 28. 

To come back to the question we asked earlier as to why?  This promise is directed towards those who love God, it is because we are now his children, and He is our Father.  As Father, His love for us will be seen in His desire to bless us with what is good.  As Jesus reminds us, “your Father in heaven [will] give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).  This is why when we pray to Him as our Father in our times of difficulties, we can trust and rest assured that He has it all under control, and will use the “all things” for our good. 

The “all things” may be tough and hard to deal with at times, but we know that He will be with us, and He knows how much we can take and will only allow what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we can rest assured that “The Lord watches over all who love him” (Psalm 145:20).

            What an encouragement to know that because of this relationship with God as our Father, we can commit all things to Him because we are His children.  We can have this confidence in Him because we love Him, just as we know He loves us (1 John 4:19).  And as we believe and actively trust God in those difficult times, our faith in God can grow as we experience His love and care in bringing good out of the trials that we go through.

            Next time, we will look at some of the different objectives that God has in bringing out ‘good’ in the ‘all things’ of life. 

Lessons learned in the hard times. Lesson 1

            God uses hard times, difficulties, pain and unusual situations to teach us things that will help us grow in our faith in God.  However, we can be quite slow in learning these things that He wants to reveal to us and patiently keeps drawing them to our attention.

            Over the years God has been teaching me three key lessons which can probably be applied to many situations that we face in life.  The first was learnt in our first year of marriage when we were on a literature team in Eire for fourteen months. One of my big concerns was how will I manage as a mission worker in Japan to which we were heading after our time in Ireland.  I was looking at senior mission workers that I knew and saw all the things they were doing and was quite fearful that I wouldn’t be able to do all they were doing.  While on the team, I had some free time while the others were taking a typing course.  I had been told that 2 Corinthians was Paul’s hand book for mission workers, so I thought that would be a good book to study. 

            This book certainly revealed Paul’s heart, his motives and experiences of God as he carried out God’s call on his life.  I learnt a lot and the study was a blessing to me because it helped me to see that it was God who was fitting me for my role as a mission worker.  In fact, it was because of Him that I could be a mission worker at all and do the work that He had for me to do.  I learnt that every area of my life was because of Him and I contributed nothing to the equation.

            God was there at my salvation.  It was God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," [making] his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).  Then in the next verse Paul tells us that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”(ch.4:7)  Paul tells us that our confidence is in God because it is He who is working.  Then he says in chapter 3:5-6,  “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant …”  Then in those well known verses in chapter 12, Paul had a ‘thorn’ that he felt was hindering his work for God and so asks God to take it away.  But what was God’s answer?   "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (12:9-10)  So Paul thanked God for his weaknesses, and it is the same with us for when we are weak we too need to rely all the more on God’s grace and power.

            This was an important lesson to learn, that really all aspects of our lives are under his control and He is working out His purposes through us as we trust and allow Him that freedom to work in us.  We have the assurance that when we do this God can and will use us to His glory.  In Philippians 1:6, we are reminded that, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  And further, it is “God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”  (Philippian 2:13)  A burden was lifted by this truth – if God calls he will also equip and provide all that we need to carry out His purpose and will for our lives and so with greater confidence I was able to leave for Japan in 1976.

There was one further aspect to this lesson that happened during this time in Ireland which helped me to see clearly that I could trust God with the work that He would give me to do when we got to Japan.  As it was a team situation, living together for the 14 months did add pressure on our relationships, not least between the director and the team members.  As team leader I felt responsible for the care and well being of the team as we faced hard situations that we all were struggling with.  How do I deal with this?  I spoke with the director and trying to resolve the issues that we sensed were present but without any apparent change to the situation.  I felt that I should not be defeated by this but have victory in this situation.  In struggling with this over some three months or so, the Lord one day made it very clear to me that he had already given me the victory but that I was trying to gain victory with my own effort.  I repented of my unbelief and self effort and submitted my life to God for his victory already received.  The problem didn’t go away but my heart attitude was changed and I was given the grace to accept it and experience God’s peace in the situation.    

This was another step in helping me to realize that I needn’t fear about going to Japan because God would be with me, helping, enabling and carrying out the work He wanted to do through me.  I didn’t need to be like other mission workers but I could be myself and do what God had called me to do.  This was an amazing release. 

By David Dexter

Lessons learned in the hard times. Lesson 2

            Last time we considered that when God calls he also equips and enables us to do what he wants us to do.  This next key lesson took much longer for me to learn.

            We went out to Japan trusting God to provide for our daily needs and God used many ways and many people to provide for us.  Over sixteen years we saw our Father generously give us all that we needed. A verse that means a lot to me is Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  This is a great promise and although conditional in that we need to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first, we can believe that God will provide for our needs as we desire to do his will. 

            However, our Father needed to continually remind me of these lessons and to take me deeper into trusting in His word.  We returned to UK in 1992 for educational reasons.  In a miraculous way we had been provided with a house in Swindon a few years earlier.  From 1991, our two oldest stayed with friends in Hereford where they entered secondary school mid way.  We felt that as the girls were already settling into a school there it would be better if they stayed and we moved to Hereford.  It was at a time when the housing market was flat and there was very little movement.  This was a challenge to our faith.  We had arrived back in June and we had hoped to move before the new school year started in the September. 

            There are many things I could say about that move, but one is that the Lord worked out the schooling matter in a quite remarkable way.  All the primary schools were full.  We had an appointment soon after school started in September with the Head of a primary school.  At the start of the interview the school situation hadn’t changed and there were no places.  During the interview a message came through to say that one of the girls had moved away with her family and we were offered the vacancy! Consequently, that opened up the way for us to make a renewed offer on a house in Hereford.  We home schooled the youngest for one more year but the others had been provided for. 

            Some months had passed and income had dried up and it was difficult finding a job or retrain.  We had a mortgage and five young people at home.  Eventually God brought me to that point where I just had to come to Him and take Matthew 6:33 and trust our Father to keep his word as He had promised.  I prayed, “This is your responsibility to provide for our needs as you promised.  You brought us back to the UK and we are completely in your hands.  It is our desire to live and serve you in whatever way you want.”  Through this experience our loving Father helped me see that I should not be looking to others to provide for us which is what I had been doing but rather look to Him. I discontinued actively looking for a job after that and trusted the Lord to provide work or meet our needs in other ways. 

            These lessons don’t just suddenly happen, rather God was preparing me through many steps to get to this point where I needed to act in response to what God was teaching me.  I have many notes in my journal over the previous months that show that I was being challenged by many situations leading to that decision of trusting God with finances.  For example, one entry made on the day we had our interview with the Head of the school states, “I have been thinking and praying this morning about the whole question of trusting God rather than trying to do things in my own way.  I felt perhaps our low offers and trying to get the house for the cheapest amount was my effort to try and do it in my way.”   We then went ahead with an increased offer on the house.  On the day the papers for the mortgage were being filled in we received a very substantial gift which was totally unexpected.  What an amazing encouragement to know that when we step out in faith trusting God, He is there to provide, often in surprising ways!  

            The second lesson of three is that God can be trusted with our finances, and as we seek his kingdom and righteousness first, we can depend on God to provide for our needs (not our wants).  For the following twelve years or so that we were in Hereford and then Newent, God always provided for the needs we had when bills were due or expenses needed to be met.  I found a Journal entry from two years after this which states, “It’s not whether we will follow God’s way if He provides but follow God’s way because it is God’s way and leave the responsibility to Him to provide.”  No, it hasn’t always been easy, and there are times we have worried, but in the end, trusting God with this area of our lives proves to be the best way to avoid the anxiety and stress that can come when we think that it is dependent upon us to provide.  It is an on going decision to keep trusting God as we are often tempted to go back to trusting our own means to provide for our needs.  As we trust Him daily His peace fills our hearts and we can rest assured that we are in good hands.    

What is faith really?

            Faith is a keystone truth that the Reformation once again brought to the forefront of our Christian lives and experience.   The clarion call of Luther and the other reformers was that it was  “…by grace you have been saved through faith.”  But faith is not just an important part of our salvation.  As Paul reminds us in Romans 1:16 we are told that “…the gospel,… is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, … For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."”  Faith is more than just part of the entry point into the Christian life.  It is also a significant part of the on going continuing life of the believer.  But what is faith?

            As mentioned in my previous blog, I had been seeking to find the answer to victory over the problems that I was facing in Ireland and had been praying for more faith so that I could overcome my problems.  I had been looking at faith as though it were something that I could top up with when I didn’t have enough, like filling up a car with more fuel.  I thought, the more faith I have the more power I will have with God.  However, this was a mistaken understanding of what faith is.  Firstly, faith is not something that can be measured on a faith meter.  If I feel my faith is weak then I need to do something to increase its power as though it were possible do something about it.  Secondly, I was praying for faith and so overcome the problem by myself, as though faith was the key that enabled me to do what I was unable to do myself.  If I had enough faith I could overcome the world!  However, Jesus’ comment was that if you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed you could move mountains (Matthew 17:20).  Further, Jesus added that a mustard seed was the smallest of seeds (Matthew 13:32).  The point is not the amount of faith that we have or don’t have but where that faith is being place – God or me!

            In Ephesians 2:8-9 we are told that our salvation is because of grace and faith. It is not based on what we do but rather is a gift of God.  If it is a gift, then the glory goes to the giver and not to the recipient of that gift because of anything in the recipient.

            In Ireland my understanding of faith increased significantly as a result of a testimony by one of the team. He described the experience of his search for God like climbing a mountain.  He was feeling discouraged because he didn’t seem to be making any progress in his search for God.  It was at this point that he describes his experience like falling over the edge of a precipice.  His fall was broken by a branch that was sticking out of the side of the mountain.  As he assessed his situation he realized that he couldn’t do anything to save himself.  He was relying on the branch as he hung on but realized that he couldn’t trust it indefinitely.  In desperation he cried out to God, “God! If you are there, save me!”   God in his mercy and grace answered him.  “Let go and trust me to save you.”  Faith in God will let go.  But why?

            What is going on in this exchange?  The team member was in a desperate situation.  He was relying of the branch but realized that he could not trust the branch for ever.  Furthermore, there was nothing he could do to save himself.  So he cries out to God.  This is something that God is pleased to respond to.  When we are at our wits ends and there is nothing that we can do but acknowledge our weakness to God, God responds to that humble request. 

            Secondly, what are we to make of God’s response to ‘let go’ and trust him to save us?  Of course, the team member is using this story to illustrate what happened to him spiritually.  However, as we consider faith’s response to God what is clear is that it is a response to a promise of God.  If God had, even in this physical situation actually spoken those words, and we were sure that it was God, then faith in God’s word would obey and let go.  Why?  Joshua reminded the people of Israel in Joshua 23:14 that God keeps his promises.  “…you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.”  Joshua could say at the end of his life that God was faithful.  Every one of his promises he has kept.  We are reminded in Numbers 23:19, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?”  In fact “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18).  God would not be a god to be trusted if he could not be relied upon to keep his word.  That God does keep his promises is reassuring and the basis upon which we can commit our lives to Him.  As we experience this promise keeping God in the circumstances of life our faith is strengthened to trust him with even bigger situations as time goes along.  We might find that what we are being asked to do is something that is outside of our comfort zone or beyond our ability to carry out.  God will not change but will continue faithful, even in situations that seem impossible.  When the disciples were surprised by Jesus’ comments about how hard it was for the rich to be saved he told them "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27).  If he makes a promise he is also able to keep it fully.  This was the message to Mary when the angel came and told her about the child she would conceive.  “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).  What a promise!

            Faith, therefore, is not something that we obtain when we need to do something but rather it is what the Holy Spirit does in our lives that causes us to trust God and believe what he has said.  It is the Holy Spirit’s enabling that helps us to commit ourselves to God for what he has promised he will do for us.  My brother quoted Hudson Taylor in a letter to us recently.  It captures the essence of what we have been talking about here.  ‘I have learned not to trust in my faith but in God’s faithfulness’.

There is a further aspect of faith I recently came across while reading the book, Esther: An Honor-Shame Paraphrase. This helps to give a complete and rounded understanding of faith. In this book, Jayson Georges has divided the book into two parts.  In the first part he elaborates on some of the cultural aspects of the story that have a bearing on how we should understand the cultural significance of the story.  In introducing his subject he touches upon our English word ‘faith’.  He points out that in our western culture we understand the word to be someone’s personal belief about something which reflects our individualistic values in our culture.  However in the Old Testament “an Israelite’s ‘faith’ is a commitment to their covenant obligations to honour Yahweh.”  Similarly in the New Testament the word translated ‘faith’ (Greek: pistis) suggests loyalty and fidelity to a relationship.  Biblical faith is not merely ‘belief about God,’ but ‘allegiance to God’ (Kindle Locations 72-78).  We in the West miss the relational aspect of ‘faith’.  This covenant relationship, this allegiance to God aspect of faith involves more that just belief.  It includes action or more precisely obedience to God’s word.  This is not to gain credit by what we do but rather because our response to our new relationship with God causes us to want to do what will please him because we love Him.  Jesus said to his disciples in the Upper Room, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  It is because we love him that WE WANT to keep his commandments.  This aspect of faith as seen in both the Old and New Testament carries with it a responsibility towards the new relationship that we have with God.  This is seen in our obedience to our loving heavenly Father.  I like the way the New Living Translation (NLT) puts Isaiah 26:8. “Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws; our heart's desire is to glorify your name.”  This summarizes perfectly the cultural meaning of the word ‘faith’.

So faith is that Holy Spirit induced attitude by which we trust God, believing His word as true and dependable and as a consequence acting upon that belief in God by our response of love to Him as seen in our obedience to His word.

All scripture quotations are taken from the ESV unless indicated.  English Standard Version Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, A Division of Good News Publishers, 1300 Crescent Street, Wheaton, Illinois 60187, USA. All rights reserved.

The Bible text designated (NLT) is from HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION ®  Copyright © 1996, 2004, by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.