The Faith Equation

The Faith Equation

I have always wondered exactly how God measured faith.  The Bible says that God has given to each one a measure of faith. Jesus said that people had “great” faith and “little” faith.

We think about great and little… in terms of money, status (the little people), height, talent (she has great ability), etc.  The idea is that some have more than others  or can do more than others.

What about faith?  Faith seems so hard to measure or the understand. It seems mystical and hard to grasp. But Jesus  measured it, quantified it, so there must be some way to understand how we are doing with our faith.

Now the title of the blog is “The Faith Equation”, but I am no mathematician. In fact I believe part of the reason I went to seminary was that I only had to be able to count to three: Father, Son & Holy Spirit.  That is about the extent of my math prowess.

The purpose of this is to sort through some of my own thoughts about faith because it seems that so many, including me, struggle with understanding their own “level” of faith.  As a pastor I have heard numerous times, in numerous forms, this idea. People are unsure if they can take on a position of responsibility because they don’t feel “right” about their walk with God. People feel overwhelmed by their problems because they struggle to feel like they have “enough” faith to have a proper walk with God.  People feel small and insignificant because they feel as though they don’t “measure up” to others in the church who make the Christian life look easy and fun.

First let’s get this out of the way- there is not a single Christian that goes through life without struggles in this area, searching out God for help, feeling like life is too big for them, dealing with painful experiences… and wondering about their faith. If anyone tells you that they have never doubted, never questioned, never felt inadequate, then I am wondering if they are really trying to live their Christian life at all.

To understand our level of faith we first have to understand that faith, the trust that God is who He says He is and can do the things He says He can do, is something that ebbs and flows, rises and falls, and must be worked on to be maintained. Just like in any relationship, as we go through issues, situations, circumstances, there can be conflict, questions, frustrations, and so it is with us and our Heavenly Father.  Faith however, is the ability, throughout life, to maintain a relationship with God and continue to love and believe God.

Faith can be hard, mainly because it is impossible for it to be easy!   Why?  Because our heart cannot conceive of God’s ways on its’ own. Our wisdom cannot understand God by itself. We don’t have the capacity to grasp God, and flow chart His character, sound bite His ways and cliff notes His works.  By ourselves we struggle to “get” God. God says…

Isaiah 55 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Faith requires us to get outside of ourselves and look beyond just what we can think or believe. In talking with people about forgiveness I have heard, “but you don’t know what I have done, how can God forgive me?”.  Their struggle is in believing the depths of God’s forgiveness, the incredible abundance of God’s mercy.

Psalm 40  5 Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

God is simply bigger, greater, deeper and higher that we can understand on our own. That is where faith comes in.

God says He is holy, morally perfect and without sin or fault. Now we have never seen anyone like this. Our mothers and fathers may be good, really good, but not perfect. We have known people who thought they were always right, but we know that they are not. So, in order to believe in a God who is perfect, it takes us outside of our experience. Do we believe in a God who is perfect, even though we have never seen any perfect person?

God says that He is all-powerful. We have seen powerful people come and go on this earth. We have seen powerful nations that were powerless to stop bad things from happening.  Powerful, wealthy people have ended up broke and jobless. How can we grasp a God who is all-powerful, able to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants?

Faith is the belief that God is who He says He is and can do the things He says He can do.

I believe that God is Holy, not because I have such great experience with being Holy nor because I have been around so many people who were morally perfect, but because I trust that God is who He says He is. God has a track record of demonstrating His holiness and holding people accountable to His high standards.

I believe that God is all-powerful, not just because I can conceive of having the power to do as I wish. Even my childhood hero Superman was not all-powerful, kryptonite was his undoing. But God proclaimed that He is the almighty, that nothing is too hard for Him. God has restrained His power at times, and He has used it when no one thought He would work, created miracles out of disaster and generally has shown that He has the power to do as He pleases, when He pleases. Do I fully understand God’s power?  No. Do I get the full picture of all that God could do?  No. But I believe that God is who He says He is, the Almighty God.

So the first part of our faith equation is that we believe that God is who He says He is and that He can do all that He says He can do.

The second part of the equation involves my actions and decisions. Am I basing my decisions and actions on the character of God or upon my own circumstances or understanding?

In order for us to have “great” faith, our decisions and actions must be based on our belief in who God is and what He can do.  The gospels give us an example of this

Matt 8   5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” 7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!… 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

The Centurion based his actions on what he believed about Jesus. He believed that Jesus had the power to simply speak a word, without being at his house, and the servant would be healed. So his request reflected that belief. He was confident is his request, understanding Jesus’ authority to do great things. His belief in who Jesus was and what Jesus could do, drove his actions.  Jesus described this as great faith.

Take this into our world today. When we have a decision to make, a situation that needs God’s attention, are we like the Centurion, believing that God can do as He pleases or…  are we, and I am not trying to be nice here, whiny, begging, needy, whimpering at the slightest inconvenience. Does trouble or pain cause us to believe that God has left us, forsaken us in our time of need?  Does difficulty cause us to doubt God’s goodness and love or His power to do anything about our situation?

Shortly after Jesus proclaimed the great faith of the Centurion, we see the opposite end of the spectrum with His own disciples…

Matt 8   23 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Look at the difference in the disciples reaction and the Centurion’s.  The Centurion was confident, believing that the situation could be changed. The disciples were in fear, knowing that the worst was about to happen, then surprised when Jesus did something about it. Their fear, their unbelief, their surprise that God was able, was described as “little faith”.  They did not base their actions on God’s power or God’s ability, but upon their own circumstances, maybe upon their own past experiences as fishermen. Before you begin to excuse them as just being in a panic, in a tight spot, this was Jesus’ assessment of their faith. He has judged that they lacked faith. If we only discern the level of our faith in easy situations, then we all would probably have great faith, the problem is little of life is left to easy situations.

If we have great faith, then we live in expectation of what God can do, we look for it, long for it and pray believing it. If we have little faith, then we live from moment to moment based on our opinions, our experiences, our past, our pessimism and fail to take into account what God can do and could do at any moment.  The Centurion believed what Jesus could do, even though I am sure he had never seen anyone healed that way. The disciples didn’t believe probably because they had heard of a lot of people drowning at sea in storms.

When we look at the things we are going through, we will have times of doubt, of wonderment, of frustration, but our attention has to return to God, to His ability to handle a situation, to His unending love for us and care for us.  Great faith is more than just believing something about God, it overlaying that knowledge on top of our life and basing our decisions and actions upon that belief.  Life if full of decisions, large and small, it is full of actions and interactions with people. How we live these things out– in fear or in faith, in distress or in confidence– measures our faith.

For those who struggle with faith, to believe that you can or to believe that things will change, turn your attention God-ward.  Look at the example of the Centurion, and express your belief in what God can do.  Maybe you have never seen a situation like yours turn around or be solved, but God is the specialist in the “never before seen”.  That is the essence of faith, believing in what has not been seen (see Hebrews 11:1). That is not crazy, it is not mere wishful thinking, it is the expectation that God has for our faith.

While we struggle with “little faith” at times, let us aspire to “great faith” believing in a great God.