2. A Trusting Life
2
A Trusting Life
Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4
Habakkuk 2:4 is an especially important verse in Scripture because its last seven words are quoted three times in the New Testament: in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. The emphasis in Romans is on the just and how lost sinners can be justified (declared righteous) before God. The emphasis in Galatians is on how God’s people live, free from the demands of the Mosaic law and depending wholly on God’s grace. The emphasis in Hebrews is on the words by faith, a phrase found at least nineteen times in the epistle.
The prophet Habakkuk contrasts two kinds of people in his world and ours: the unbelieving proud and self-sufficient people who think they don’t need God, and the saved people who are justified because they have trusted Christ and experienced God’s saving grace. The true Christian is saved by faith (Eph. 2:8–9) and lives by faith. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
What Is Faith?
Cynical American editor H. L. Mencken defined faith as “an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable,” and humorist Mark Twain had one of his characters say that “faith was believing what you know ain’t so.” And yet, whether they know it or not, all day long the population of planet Earth lives by faith! They trust their physician’s diagnosis and prescription and the pharmacist’s skill in compounding the medicine, and yet both of these, being human, could make mistakes. One doctor treated my wife for pneumonia when the pain in her rib cage was actually caused by a damaged ligament. We all make mistakes. Two visits to a therapist cured her. The apostle John wrote, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son” (1 John 5:9). If you have ever ridden on an elevator, asked a stranger for directions, eaten food samples in a supermarket, or invested money with a broker, you have acted by faith, for we have no guarantee that what is promised or what we expect will actually happen.
Faith is not a mystical experience of “believing in spite of evidence.” That is nothing but superstition and it is foolish. Christian faith is personal confidence in the character of God and in the reliability of His promises as we obey His will. We have plenty of evidence that the Bible is true and that God keeps His promises. Remember, “the witness of God is greater” and always will be. Faith in the Lord enables us to obey Him regardless of the feelings within us, the circumstances around us, or the consequences before us. Abraham believed that God would lead him to the promised land, and He did. When Abraham stopped trusting and started making his own plans, God had to chasten him. Faith is living without scheming. Faith is not a special tool we take out of the closet when we face an emergency, because we should “walk by faith” all day long and all life long.
We must learn to trust God in every circumstance and for every need. When my mother-in-law went shopping, she prayed for parking places; when I moved to Chicago with my family, I began to pray for parking places! You watch and pray when you drive, you ponder and pray when you shop, you ask God for His help when you go out to minister.
Hebrews 11 describes two kinds of believers, both of whose faith God honored. In verses 1–35, the writer describes those whose faith worked miracles and wrought wonderful victories; but right in the middle of verse 35 he starts describing people who seemed to be failures! The word others in verse 35 means “others of a different kind.” Both groups had true faith in the Lord, but the second group was different in that it was not granted miraculous deliverance. Instead, they suffered greatly and some of them were slain. Were they people of faith? Yes! Did God give them remarkable deliverance? No! But He did give them the faith to endure persecution and to bring glory to God in their martyrdom (John 21:18–19). The two groups each had the same faith but they did not have the same deliverance; however, both groups brought glory to God.
When I hear well-meaning preachers and teachers declare that God always gives us what we ask in prayer if only we have faith, I shake my head and wonder how many brokenhearted Christians will start questioning God’s character and the truth of His promises. Paul was a man of great faith who prayed three times to have his “thorn in the flesh” removed, but God didn’t remove it (2 Cor. 12:7–10). Instead, the Lord gave Paul the grace to bear the pain and not complain, which was the blessing he needed. The divine transformation of pain can bring God more glory than the removal of the pain itself; the example of Jesus on the cross proves that. Escaping problems and pains is a wonderful experience—but so is enduring them.
By honestly answering four simple questions, we may test ourselves to see if we are truly praying and walking by faith.
First, can we back up our prayer requests with Scripture? “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). When I graduated from high school, I had a job waiting for me at a local factory, but I had promised to serve for a week at Vacation Bible School at our church and I couldn’t do both. I prayed and asked the Lord to give me something from the Bible that would guide me, and in the course of my daily Bible reading I encountered Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Claiming this promise, I asked my contact at the factory if I could start a week later, and he gave me permission. Problem solved!
That experience seems trivial when compared with this next one. When my wife and I were serving our first church, it became evident that the congregation would have to build a new sanctuary. My predecessor had wisely built a modest but adequate educational building next to the church building, so we had temporary facilities both for Sunday School classes and church services while building the new sanctuary. My family and close friends know that I am not mechanically inclined and that I have an easier time studying Greek than I do understanding blueprints and specifications. Like Solomon, I was young and inexperienced (1 Chron. 22:5), so I asked the Lord for the promise I needed from the Scriptures.
One morning in my daily reading I came to 1 Chronicles 28:20, where David says to Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.” What a promise! The Holy Spirit so burned this verse into my heart that it carried me through the entire building program. I had never even built a birdhouse from a kit, yet the Lord gave me and the congregation all that we needed to finish the project.
I am not suggesting you play “Bible roulette” and open the Scriptures just anywhere, close your eyes, and put your finger on a verse. That’s not the way of faith. I think it was Campbell Morgan who told about a man who used that approach and his finger landed on Matthew 27:5, “[and Judas] went and hanged himself.” So the man tried again, reopened the Bible, and pointed to Luke 10:37, “Go and do likewise.” Keep in mind that the Lord gives us these promises not because we find them but because they find us in the course of our regular reading of God’s Word. Time after time, the Lord has directed me and my wife in that way as we have prayed about important decisions.
Second, are we doing this for the glory of God? Abraham is our example. God had told him and his wife that they would have a son in their old age, and they did. “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom. 4:20). God does not answer prayer to please us or to make us rich or famous. He answers prayer to bring glory to His name. In his book The Tests of Life, Robert Law wrote, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in Heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.”1 We must examine our motives as we pray and allow the Spirit to search our hearts. The Lord has answered many prayers for us, but I have lived long enough to be grateful for unanswered selfish prayers.
Third, do we have peace in our hearts as we pray? “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). When I was a seminary student, I wanted a part-time job so I consulted the job list on the dormitory bulletin board. One opening seemed to fit my schedule, so I phoned the company, chatted with the HR director, and got the job—over the phone! But once back in my room, I was restless and upset because I knew I had run ahead of the Lord. So I phoned the HR director and apologetically resigned the job, and he was very understanding. A few weeks later, I was invited to become interim pastor of my home church as they searched for a new shepherd, and I stayed with them for seven years! (Usually an interim pastor never gets called, but God had other plans.) No matter what the circumstances are around us, if we have God’s peace in our hearts, we can weather the storm and end up at the port of His choosing. The three Hebrew young men are perfect examples of this (Dan. 3).
Fourth, are we willing to wait? Serving the Lord involves more than simply doing His bidding. We must do His will in the right way, for the right motive, and at the right time. Romans 10:11 says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” This is a quotation from Isaiah 28:16, “whoever believes will not act hastily.” When we act impulsively, we usually end up shamefully in trouble, but when we live by faith we are willing to wait on the Lord. David cautions us in Psalm 32:9, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule.” Horses are prone to rush ahead and mules often insist on being stubborn. When we walk by faith, we dare not make either of these mistakes or we will be embarrassed and get detoured. Waiting on the Lord is not wasted time; it is invested time as we stay out of God’s way until He gives us the signal to act. God is not in a hurry! “Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the LORD” (Ps. 27:14). “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him” (37:7).
Living by faith and trusting the Lord and His promises are not luxuries God gives to the spiritual elite; they are absolute necessities for every child of God. We want the Father to be patient with us as we delay our obedience, but we do not want to be patient with Him as He works out His will in His time! Impatience is usually a mark of either doubt or outright unbelief, while a willingness to wait is evidence of faith. Whenever we become impatient with the Father and get in a hurry, we must remember three “orders” given in the Bible: “Stand still” (Exod. 14:13), “Sit still” (Ruth 3:18), and “Be still” (Ps. 46:10). If we “stand still,” God can go before us and prepare the way, as He did for Israel when they crossed the Red Sea. If we “sit still,” God can work for us and accomplish His perfect will, as He did for Ruth. If we will “be still,” the Lord will be our refuge and strength in times of trouble, and everything will work out for His glory and our good. The Hebrew word translated “be still” in Psalm 46:10 literally means “take your hands off.” How prone we are to try to manage everything ourselves and tell God what to do! Of course, when we know God’s will we must be prepared to do it when He gives the signal.
What Does Faith Do for Us?
Faith is the channel that connects us to the treasury of God’s grace, from which God can provide all that we need. Through Jesus Christ “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2; see Eph. 3:12). In a sermon to his London congregation in 1882, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “However, brethren, whether we like it or not, remember, asking is the rule of the kingdom.” Jesus promised that if we ask in faith, He will graciously give us what we need (Luke 11:9), and James rebukes us when he writes, “Yet you do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). The new birth is the first gift God bestows on us when we trust Jesus to save us (Eph. 2:8), and then, as the children of God, for the rest of our lives we may draw upon the “exceeding riches of His grace” (v. 7). “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Our Father wants us to ask Him to provide what we need for the same reasons fathers and mothers want their children to ask for parental help: asking and receiving are evidences of faith and love. The children confess their own inadequacy and the parents show their generosity. We glorify the Lord when we can say, “Just see what our heavenly Father has done for us!” Believing prayer keeps us in fellowship with God so that He can guide us, teach us, and share His love with us. As children get older, they begin to obey their parents because they love them and want to please them, not because they want “things” for themselves. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). We want to be like Jesus and “always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). That is the kind of witness Paul had: “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4). The people of God who major only in pleasing themselves or satisfying others and not the Lord will not accomplish much for the kingdom of God.
If we live by faith, we have the guarantee of God’s guidance day by day and the wisdom we need to make right decisions. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5–6). Note that Solomon did not tell us to ignore our understanding, because God does instruct a “renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). What He wants is that we not depend on our own reasoning. Joshua’s defeat at Ai and his covenant with the Gibeonites illustrate the danger of making impetuous decisions (Joshua 7; 9). Joshua blundered because he walked by sight and not by faith, and therefore missed getting God’s best. Yes, he was an experienced soldier, but that did not give him the freedom to ignore prayer and seeking God’s will.
Faith in the Lord will give us the peace and safety we need in this dangerous world. “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe” (Prov. 29:25). On the night of the exodus, Moses did not fear Pharaoh’s army behind him or the waters of the Red Sea before him. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD,” he instructed the people. “The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exod. 14:13–14). God’s trusting people are immortal until their work on earth is done. I like the confident attitude of the apostle Paul when he wrote, “But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:8–9). Paul was a realist and did not minimize the obstacles, but he did emphasize the opportunities and the power of God. Ten of the twelve Jewish men who spied out the land of Canaan saw the problems, but Caleb and Joshua saw the opportunities and put their faith in the Lord (Num. 13–14). To walk by faith means to win the battle; to walk by sight can mean to lose the battle and rob the Lord of the glory He deserves.
Like Israel in the wilderness, there are people in our churches who walk by sight and are constantly complaining and repeatedly wanting to “go back to Egypt.” Except for Joshua and Caleb, that whole generation of unbelieving Israelites died in the wilderness. Then the Lord took the new generation and gave them victory after victory in Canaan. I fear that too many ministries have been wandering for years in unbelief when they could have been marching in victory. I thank God for my years of service on the Youth for Christ International headquarters staff. We all had plenty of work to do and we had to raise our own support just like missionaries, and the Lord never failed us. We had special days of prayer when we closed down the office (except for the switchboard) and gathered at a local church to spend uninterrupted time in prayer. I remember the all-night prayer meetings at our YFC conventions and the special prayer meetings when an unexpected crisis arose. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
Romans 11:20 tells us we should stand by faith, and 1 Thessalonians 1:3 tells us to work by faith. How could we get any work accomplished if all we did was run around aimlessly? It takes faith to stand and it takes faith to serve. “By faith we understand” (Heb. 11:3), and by faith we see the invisible realities of the kingdom of God (v. 27). Vance Havner used to say, “By faith Moses saw the invisible, chose the imperishable, and did the impossible” (see vv. 23–29). Not a bad record! I thank God for my training in university and seminary and my experience in ministry, but without faith in the Lord these assets would become liabilities.
Scripture indicates that, when it comes to faith, there are three possibilities: no faith (Mark 4:40), little faith (Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8), and great faith (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9). It’s interesting that the “great faith” people named were both Gentiles! “Little faith” seemed to be our Lord’s favorite nickname for His disciples. Jesus used a little child (Luke 18:17) and a tiny seed (Matt. 17:20) to illustrate the remarkable potential of growth in the spiritual life. Children trust us as they mature and we must never betray that trust or that faith will be damaged. The tiny seed has life in it, and as it is nurtured it will grow to maturity and produce fruit.
The Holy Spirit uses the “word of faith” (Rom. 10:8) to increase our faith because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (v. 17). Evangelist Dwight L. Moody said, “I used to think I should close my Bible and pray for faith, but I came to see that is was in studying the Word that I was to get faith.” I’ve heard Hebrews 11 called “the Westminster Abbey of Faith,” but I question the accuracy of the title. I’ve visited Westminster Abbey several times and, except for the visitors, everybody in the building is dead! Faith is a living experience! I see Hebrews 11 as “the Hall of Fame of Faith.” The people mentioned in that chapter are Olympic champions, bearing witness to us that we can run the race and win in spite of the obstacles.
So, if we want to grow in faith, we must invest time reading and studying the Bible and meditating on what the Lord says. We should compare Scripture with Scripture, memorizing verses and “chewing on them” until they become a part of our inner being. We must “digest” the truth by obeying it so that it becomes a living part of our being. If we do, our faith will grow.
Prayer is another discipline that builds faith. Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail but that he would be restored to service (Luke 22:31–34). As we see the Lord answering prayer in our own lives, we are encouraged to keep on praying and trusting the promises of God. When your prayer life starts to lag, claim Luke 11:9. “And I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” Our Lord was not just repeating Himself when He spoke those words, because each command carries a special blessing. Ask refers to the Father’s wealth, seek refers to the Father’s will, and knock refers to the Father’s work. (Open doors in Scripture speak of opportunities for service, as in 1 Cor. 16:8–9). We have the right to receive the Father’s wealth so long as we are doing the Father’s will and are busy in the Father’s work, no matter what our calling may be.
By reading Scripture and the biographies and autobiographies of great men and women of faith, I have learned that our Father uses trials and tribulations to increase and perfect our faith. James calls this “the testing of your faith” (James 1:3). A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted. I don’t know of any servants of God who have been singularly blessed by God and yet have escaped trial and testing—and this includes our own beloved Savior. “In the world you will have tribulation,” He told the disciples, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Unknown to the people they blessed, many of God’s choicest servants have lived with personal afflictions and yet continued to serve. During my many years of itinerant ministry, I have been privileged to serve with some of these men and women and have been startled to learn about their “thorns in the flesh”—and they about mine!
I recall a pastor who visited a parishioner in the hospital after she had been through a complex and life-threatening operation. She asked him, “Why did the Lord make me like this?” He quietly replied, “He hasn’t made you yet. He is still making you and He is still making me, and He knows what He is doing.” She got the point. When you read the Book of Job, you find the patriarch asking many questions of God and of his three friends, and very few of them are really answered. But Job discovered that God’s children do not live on explanations; they live on promises. “He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Peter probably had this verse in mind when he wrote, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:12–13). To be treated the way Jesus was treated certainly is a distinct privilege! Paul called it “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10).
Joseph experienced hatred and deception at home, lying and physical suffering in Egypt, and separation from the father and brothers he loved. Yet he knew the key to the whole scenario: “God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). You would think he had read Romans 8:28!
If we start praying, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), we had better reach for God’s Word, go into the prayer closet, and close the door, and when we come out we should expect to experience trials, because that is the only way for God to answer our prayer. Jesus “learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), and so shall we.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).
“And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
__________________
1. Robert Law, The Tests of Life: A Study of the First Epistle of St. John, third ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), 304.