Faith Under
Fire
IntroductionWhen a person trusts in Christ in faith, whether they realize it or not, they have been enrolled in the “school of faith.” Consequently, as Christians, we never know what may happen next because God, who works all things together for good, uses our trials as tools to promote spiritual growth and maturity. We might take Abraham as an illustration. Paul identifies him as the father of faith, the forefather of all who believe (Rom. 4:16-17). When we examine his life, we quickly see how God took him from one test to another. As one who trusted God, he obeyed God’s call, left Ur, and went to Canaan, but immediately, we find Abraham facing a famine, then settling a boundary dispute, then gearing up for a battle, and then facing the continuation of no child as God had promised. Why is this so? James 1:2-4 gives us the answer. God wants us to mature in every area of life, but maturity doesn’t come easily. There can be no growth without testing, and there can be no testing without difficulties. If our circumstances never changed, if everything would be predictably good and comfortable, we would never have to really trust God; the more predictable life becomes, the less challenge it presents. Typically, growth is hard. It stretches us and often hurts and we naturally look for what is comfortable and easy. Maybe you have heard the song that has a line, “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” Similarly, there is a book entitled, Looking Out For Number One. If these words don’t illustrate man’s typical approach and outlook to life, I don’t know what does. People look for what they want or think they must have to make life work, but they typically look for it in all the wrong places whether it’s love or security or happiness or significance. Furthermore, in the process, rather than walking by faith in God’s providence and provision, people look out for number one. This of course, is not only a self-centered lifestyle that walks on anyone who gets in the way, but a lifestyle that depends on their own futile solutions. The account of Abram and Lot in Genesis 13:1-13 gives us a good illustration of this very thing in the contrast seen between these two men. On the one hand, having grown through the experience in Egypt (Gen. 12) and with his eyes focused and resting on God’s promises to one day give him and his descendants the land, Abram was able to put others before himself. He offered Lot the opportunity to choose where he wanted to live. By contrast, with his eyes selfishly focused on what he wanted regardless of how it might impact Abram, Lot relied on his own wisdom and strategies and chose according to his own outlook. Abram’s response is a classic illustration of faith under fire. It teaches us how faith handles the problems of life such as the possibility of strife or strained relationships as described in Genesis 13:5-8. Clearly, Abram’s desire for harmony, along with his generosity and sacrifice, was a sign of faith in God’s wisdom and promises, for faith does not selfishly seek one’s own desires, but is generous, gracious, and self-denying. The Christian life is a life of faith. Christians are called to live by faith from beginning to end; from initial faith in Christ that promises salvation as a gift from God to a moment-by-moment life of faith that encompasses all the circumstances of life. It is a life wherein believers are called upon to rest every aspect of life in God’s hands—past, present, and future. That faith or trusting the Lord is important to the believer’s daily walk is everywhere evident in the Bible and this is obvious from the number of times faith or its synonyms like trust and believe occur in Scripture. Faith occurs 247 times in the KJV, 250 in the NASB, and 270 in the NIV, trust 134 in the KJV, 83 in the NASB, and 89 in the NIV, and some form of believe, 314 times in the KJV, 279 in the NASB, and 278 in the NIV. Just a few passages will quickly illustrate the vital role faith or believing or trust should have:
Faith in the truth and content of Scripture, then, is the essence of the Christian life. However, even though we may know we are to walk by faith as Christians, we still often fail to see just how thoroughly the life of faith is to reach into every facet of our lives so that it truly encompasses all that we are and do. We give credence to the concept intellectually, but we end up compartmentalizing. We walk by faith in some areas, while other areas we carefully reserve for our own solutions by which we seek to meet our needs. Such solutions, of course, constitute our own self-protective measures of self-trust. We may trust in Christ for salvation. We may trust Him for our daily bread. We may trust Him for ability to witness or to teach a Sunday school class. We may trust Him for safety on a trip or trust Him to heal us from some sickness. But even in all of that, we can still seek to handle most of life, especially the frustrating issues, through our own resources or methods. This is particularly true in our relationships with people. Learning to live by faith is largely a matter of: (a) knowing God (cf. Ps. 9:10; Dan. 11:32b), (b) staying focused on Him (Heb. 12:1-2) (c) recognizing, acknowledging, and turning from those human solutions by which we seek to live, our self-protective methods, which are really the ways of unbelief and are futile to meet our needs (Jer. 2:12-13; 17:5-7; Isa. 50:10-11). As part of the learning process, the New Testament often points us back to the Old Testament for both positive examples of faith as incentives (Heb. 11:1-12:1), and for negative illustrations of unbelief as warnings against failing to walk by faith (Heb. 3:7-4:16). These Old Testament examples stand as timeless warnings. They illustrate just how quickly we can fail to relate and focus our lives on the Lord and what He is to us and intends to do in, through, and for us (1 Cor. 10:1f; Heb. 3:7f). by J. Hampton Keathley III |