Use it or lose it?

 

Someone I know often says that when God speaks anything to her, she needs to have a sign or a confirmation of it. For instance, if she reads that God will give peace to her children (Isaiah 54:13) then she needs to see her children at peace to fully believe it. This answer to prayer becomes her evidence for faith. The problem with this is the Bible’s description of faith:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

The examples given are about creation and about the faith of OT saints:

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:3–7)

Note in each example God is pleased with the faith of His people which came before His rewards for faith. There is no mention of them believing because they were rewarded. Faith is about trusting what God says, even if we cannot see the answer. Our faith is in God’s promises, even before their fulfillment.

There is a divine order concerning this. Today’s reading puts it this way: first, get your facts; second, put faith in those facts; and finally, acknowledge the feelings that come as a result of believing the facts. This order is always followed in earthly matters; but curiously enough in religious matters a great many people reverse this order. They put feelings first, then faith in those feelings, and come to the facts last, looking on them as the result of their feelings.

Last night was my example. I ‘felt’ that a certain team would win the game we watched and even thought that my strong feeling was from God. However, they lost. My ‘faith’ was not based on facts but feelings. A strong ‘I want’ can affect how I read the Bible too, a far more serious error. If I want God to use me in a particular way because I have a strong desire for that thing to happen does not mean God will do it. I need to pay attention to His will and not base my beliefs on my desires.

Today’s reading describe those who say they could easily believe it if only they have the witness in themselves, as the Bible says we are to have. But when is a person to have that inner witness—before he believes, or after?

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. (1 John 5:10)

The Bible puts the believing first. Is not this because what God says comes first and is our priority and our fact? His words are true, and they come to us as knowledge, not as a feeling that requires proof by giving us some sort of result that is affirmed by a full or partial answer.

As for that, my ‘feelings’ can be based on something false. Just because my children are at peace does not mean that God has been teaching them. They could be at a time in life when everything is going their way. My hope must be in God to fulfill that promise, not in what I can see!

PRAY: Jesus, enable me to always be alert to the idol of feelings or the need to ‘see’ answers before I will trust what You say to me. You are faithful and true to Your word. Everything else is iffy and even fickle. Besides, You also say, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1) not “pay closer attention to how you feel.”