Faith

What is your definition of faith? Using your definition of faith, ask yourself: Do I have faith? When I think of faith, I think of the widow who gave the only two coins she had to the church. This story is found in both Mark and Luke. Now it is believed that Mark, while written by Mark was first the testimony of Peter. I can only imagine what this must have felt like to Peter. Having seen this old widow who was very poor give the only two coins that she had. Peter must have watched and heard Jesus speak and been struck to the core. It was earlier in Mark that Peter tried to walk on water and Jesus had to rescue him. I believe that faith it something that Peter aspired to ever since that point and then to see this woman to do this must have been quite the experience. She expressed such a faith that I believe it moved several of the disciples to tears. She didn't know how she was going to survive after giving away her only coins, but she did it anyway in faith. As Hebrews says, "Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." Now I can say that I have faith in God, but if I'm not actively showing that I believe in God, then I don't really have faith, just as James says that faith without action is dead.

So that brings up another question, what does faith really look like? Does this mean that we are all supposed to give up everything that we have for Christ? Are we supposed to be like the rich young ruler who is told to sell everything he has and follow Jesus? In a spiritual sense, the answer is yes. We are to focus entirely on Christ and what He wants in our life. When we become burdened down with what we have and worry about gaining more, then we lose sight of God. In a practical sense that means doing things intentionally in pursuit of God and using every opportunity to glorify Him. It means taking yourself out of your comfort zone and doing things to advance His kingdom. That may look very different in your own life. Maybe in your own life, it simply means donating money to the church. It may also mean leaving your very comfortable job for a ministry position that pays a lot less. Faith is about sacrificing something to allow God to show up. If we do things on our own, then we're not really using faith, we're simply doing it on our own. When we exercise our faith, we are believing God is who He says He is. It is no wonder that we have such a difficult time with faith. It goes against our logic and our societal norms, yet this is exactly what God calls us to. It's amazing at how we often treat those who act in faith. Their actions don't make sense to us, we may even condemn them for being stupid or at best just assume they are ignorant. We tell them that that isn't how the world works or try to explain to them that they are making a poor decision. The thing is that God has an upside-down kingdom. The things that make sense in our world, make none in His.

I was reading Donald Miller's book Searching for God Knows What. In it Miller describes his lifeboat theory where all of us are trying to prove to everyone else why we are better than others in order for us to stay in the lifeboat. He also describes how Jesus lived and how he did not ascribe to that theory, rather he did everything against that theory. He showed the value of those who were marginalized and how our world needed to learn that we must not show favoritism. Now I believe this lifeboat theory also applies to faith. Often times when we are acting in faith, everyone else may think that we're weird or being naive. If we get caught up in what everyone else thinks then our faith can begin to waiver. If, however, we remember that God loves us and that our faith is our response to that love, then it is our obligation to continue to step out in faith, despite the jeers of those around us. Faith feels unnatural and I think that is why God desires it from us. After all, God wants our devotion to Him to be unhindered and unobstructed and wants us to fall madly in love with Him, just as He is madly in love with us.