Your Unique Faith
By David W Hall
The articles in this magazine have been very helpful in looking at the meaning of faith, and what faith in God is. Now we must ask the question: ‘what does it mean, in practical terms, for each one of us?’
Have you ever had someone try to encourage you, yet his or her encouragement just makes the path ahead loom even more daunting? That is how I felt for many years when I read a certain passage of scripture, until God revealed something to me in the verses which I hadn’t understood before.
In the Bible, chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews summarises the lives of many men and women throughout the Bible who lived according to real faith. It describes people who were willing to pay any cost to follow God, and who trusted Him in all sorts of circumstances. They were not living from a philosophy of positive thinking, nor by the Aussie motto, ‘she’ll be right, mate!’ No, they had a faith that was founded in their relationship with God. Out of this relationship they came to understand what God’s will was for their lives, and they obediently went about living it. Men and women through history have learned what it is to live by faith born in a relationship with God.
Our passage in Hebrews also says ‘time would fail me to tell’ of all those whom the writer knew of, not just in history, but also his generation. He writes of some pretty terrible things that happened to people, yet they knew how to live by faith in the midst of their circumstance. This passage was written as an encouragement not only to the church at the time of the writer’s life, but also to us.
The next chapter starts, ‘since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith’.
The difficulty I used to have in reading this was that, compared to the people discussed in the previous chapter, I had never faced anything as dreadful. To be honest, the thought of doing so made me shake at the knees. These people, in their persecution as Christians, had endured beatings, tortures, false imprisonment, and even death in all sorts of awful ways. My first response was to feel terrible for those people. Then I would wonder what my ‘faith’ would be like if that were ever to happen to me. I simply cannot imagine it. After that, I would feel quietly condemned and inadequate because I could not imagine what faith would be like if I was living in their shoes. Then I would watch the news and feel inadequate again; in a closer-to-home example, how would I cope if my home were destroyed by flooding as has recently happened in Queensland? The point I had missed about faith, however, is that faith is a gift from God. He gives it according to His purpose for our lives.
So, it is futile comparing my circumstance with someone else’s. Rather I should ask God what His will is for my life, in my particular circumstances, and to look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. How am I to live by His love where He has placed me in my family, my work place or my neighbourhood? There is no point in imagining the worst situation and then wondering ‘could I cope?’ Rather, I must know the truth of God’s will for me here and now. Then He can teach me how to live, not for myself but for others, according to the power of His life and love in me.
The examples shared in the scripture, then, are not to condemn us or to be a standard to which we compare ourselves. They are there to say, ‘these men and women were faithful in the circumstance in which they found themselves. Will you be faithful in yours? Will you commit to fellowship with God and His people so you can know the will of God for your life, and by faith, live it out?’ When we are faithful in this way, there is a great cloud of witnesses rejoicing and spurring us on. Christ Himself will send the faith that we need into our hearts.
