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In
preceding chapters we have considered the
subject of faith so far as it relates to the
receiving of God's cleansing work in the soul;
it remains now to consider the general subject
as it relates to the Christian life. The word is
often applied to a system of belief or teaching,
as "the faith of the gospel." This use of the
word calls for no notice here. Faith in this
work means the faculty of the human soul by
which we lay hold upon God and are brought into
intimate contact with him, and through which we
receive things from him. All have the power to
believe. Evangelical faith is believing "that
God is and he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). It is
believing that God is what the Bible says he is
and that he will do what the Bible says he will
do. It is a confident and implicit relying upon
him. It is counting him true and his word true,
and putting that confidence into action in our
lives.
In Galatians 5:22 faith is said
to be one of the fruits of the Spirit. We have a
natural faculty of faith, or the power to
believe, and the Spirit of God, working upon
this natural power, quickens our faith and turns
it into channels that lead Godward, and thus God
becomes the object of our faith. Faith being a
fruit of the Spirit, it naturally follows that
the more spiritual we become the stronger will
be our faith and the more effective it will be
in its action. Like other natural qualities, it
is more highly developed in some persons than in
others, but there are none but can have faith in
God sufficient for their own salvation and
sufficient to enable them to live a godly and
true life. Faith is also capable of great
development. As we advance from one experience
to another in the Christian life and see how God
has blessed us and led us on and helped us, that
increases our faith, adding to it from day to
day. It is God?s will that every one of his
children have sufficient faith to make them
overcomers in this world, so that they may live
a life to please God in all things.
Qualities of Faith
Faith is not as blind Credulity.
Faith has keen eyes, and she looks forth with
unfaltering gaze. She knows full well that she
need not close her eyes to any fact. She knows
that the whole realm of truth is hers. She gazes
at all the facts in the quiver of Reason and
fears none of them. She sees in and beyond these
truths a mighty God, the object of her
confidence. Credulity fears truth, but Faith
rejoices in it, for in every truth she sees the
revelation of her Beloved. Her eyes are
quickened by love, so that she sees where other
eyes cannot see. She sees the unseen and beholds
the invisible. Her vision pierces the dark and
threatening clouds of earthly circumstances and
beholds God still upon his throne and still her
helper.
Faith is courageous. She does not
triumph because her enemies are weak, but
because she is strong, and difficulties only
make her stronger. She faces her foes with
confidence, for she knows Him in whom she
trusts. She is bold with the boldness that comes
from strength, for she knows that she has access
to all the strength of God. Why should she be
timid or shrinking? is not her God greater than
all? is he not with her? She is hopeful even in
the darkest hour. She can always see something
in which to rejoice. Dark skies do not appall
her. The keen winds of persecution and the
beating waves of trouble cannot silence her song
of rejoicing. She knows in whom she trusts. She
knows that the end will be victory, and so she
goes upon her way confident, courageous, and
hopeful.
The Foundation of Faith
Paul told the Corinthians that
his preaching to them was not with "enticing
words of man?s wisdom, but in the demonstration
of the Spirit and of power; that their faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God" (I Corinthians 2:4). Faith has a
more sure foundation than the wisdom of man. It
is based upon the character and promises of God.
When we come to know the character of God,
through the revelation of himself in the Bible
and through what we learn of him by our own
experience, it affords us a certain foundation
for faith. We learn his truthfulness; therefore
we know his promises are true. We learn of his
faithfulness; therefore we know that his
promises will be fulfilled. We learn of his
kindness, and we know that he will be kind to
us. We learn of his love, and we know that he
will manifest that love to us in helping us. God
has spoken many gracious promises to us. He
cannot lie. These promises were made to be
fulfilled and not to be broken. They are "yea
and amen" to every one that believes. God never
tries to find a way to excuse himself in not
fulfilling his promises. He never desires not to
fulfill them. He has never made to us a single
promise that it is not his delight to carry out
for us. He stands behind them all to make them
good, not simply because his faithfulness and
truthfulness are at stake, but because what he
has promised us is the natural fruitage of his
love toward us.
In these things faith has a
foundation that can never fail her. Upon it she
can confidently stand. This is the only sure
foundation that she can have. Any other will
give way beneath her feet. God?s character will
never change, and so his promises will never
fail. If you would have faith, look at the
promises of God and then look behind the
promises at God himself. Look at his character.
Contemplate its beauty and strength until your
heart becomes enraptured. Behold his perfection
until your heart is warmed with adoration. Many
are weak indeed because they do not really know
God. They have never really studied his
character. They are unaware of his perfection.
They are unaware of his interest in them. They
do not know the strength and richness of his
love. They might know these things if they would
read of him in the Bible as they ought and if
they would spend proper time in meditating over
what they read. Reader, if you have never given
sufficient time to the study of the character of
God, you ought to take that time now. You can
spend profitably many days and months therein.
Do not be afraid that you will exhaust the
subject, for God is infinite. Too many
Christians never become acquainted with God
further than to be on just common speaking terms
with him. They never attain to that intimate
knowledge of him, that intimate relation with
him, that it is their privilege to enjoy. The
more perfectly we know him and the closer to
him, the more certain we shall feel that our
faith stands upon a solid foundation, one that
will never yield under any circumstances.
Based on anything else than the
character and promises of God, faith must ever
be weak and wavering. Some base their faith on
their experience. As long as they have full
confidence in their experience, they think that
they can ask God for things and obtain them
because of what they are. It is very good to
have confidence in our experience, but to base
our confidence and our faith on our experience
is a very unwise thing. If we do this, anything
that makes us doubt our experience in any degree
will hinder our faith just when an active
vigorous faith is needful. Many times people
base their faith upon their emotions. If our
feelings are the foundation for our faith, we
shall apparently be very strong in faith when we
are joyful; but when emotions subside, our faith
is gone. Faith must have a substantial
grounding, or it will fail just when most
needed. To stand, it must be based upon things
that are immutable. If we anchor our boat to a
floating log, we shall drift with its motions.
Our emotions rise and fall as the tide. If we
make them the basis for faith, we shall never be
able to stand.
Emotion is often a false witness,
while faith?s witness is always true. Emotion
says that we are strong when we are joyful, and
weak when we are in heaviness. Its witness is
not true. Our real strength is practically the
same in both instances, only we are more
encouraged and inclined to use our strength when
emotions run high. Joyful emotions stimulate
faith, hope, and courage, and render them
active; while opposite emotions depress and
hinder them. The operation of faith is normal
and undisturbed only when emotion is neutral or
when it is fully separated in action from faith,
and our faith in nowise depends upon it. Just as
long as we base our faith upon our feelings, it
will rise and fall as our feelings do. We shall
be now strong, now weak; now certain, now
uncertain; now confident, now fearful. Get your
faith and your feelings separated. It is only by
so doing that your faith will hold fast in the
times when you need it.
When your emotions run high, you
have need of little faith, for the strength of
your emotions will carry you through; but when
emotion subsides and you are left without the
stimulus that it gives, it is then that you need
faith, and it is then that you must have it in
order to keep from being tossed about. Right
here is the difficulty with a multitude of
Christians. Their faith is based upon their
emotions, not upon the Word of God; therefore so
long as they feel all right, their faith is
steady, but as soon as their feelings subside or
as soon as bad feelings begin to come, their
faith wavers and shrinks, and they are ready to
give up in despair. This is child?s play, and
you will never be more than a child in faith so
long as you base your faith upon your emotions.
God wants you to be man-sized and man-strong. He
does not want you to be the creature of your
emotions. He wants you to stand by faith, by a
faith anchored to his immutable promises. When
faith is so anchored, waves of feeling may rise
and fall, the wind may blow this way or that,
but the man stands firm. He is saved whether he
feels good or feels bad, whether he is joyful or
sorrowful, whether his heart is overflowing with
thankfulness or his emotions are perfectly
neutral. Faith must be based on something
outside ourselves if it shall ever have a
healthy growth and strong development.
Some people base their faith
largely upon what other people think of them.
They can feel that they are saved so long as
certain ones seem to have confidence in them and
are manifesting that confidence at every
opportunity. It is all right to appreciate the
confidence of our brethren and the manifestation
of that confidence, but we should not base our
hopes of heaven and our confidence in ourselves
on such manifestations of approval. We must
stand for ourselves. We must know ourselves and
our own relations with God; we must not depend
upon others to know for us. Get close enough to
God so that nobody else can know your state as
well as you yourself. Let no one be intermediate
between you and God. He has promised that you
should know him for yourself and that you should
know yourself and your standing before him. Seek
this close relation with God. The door is wide
open; you may enter into it if you will. God
will see that you find the way if you really
try. When once your faith is anchored on the
solid foundation that he furnishes for you, the
accusation of men and devils will not affright
you nor make you give up your confidence in God.
The Effect of Faith
Paul says, "Let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith"
(Hebrews 10:22). There are those who tell us
that we can never know we are saved, or in fact
ever be very sure of anything in regard to our
relations with God. Nothing could be more
contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures.
Faith brings knowledge. There is never a
completed action by faith but there is an
assurance that follows that action. It is the
natural fruit of that action. Faith works with
assurance. He who has faith draws nigh to God
with expectation. He knows that God is true and
that His promise is for him. He lays hold upon
the promise because the promise belongs to him
and because God is pleased to have him claim his
rights in the promise. When he takes hold upon
the promise, he is sure of the result. Sometimes
people speak of "taking things by faith" when
they rather mean claiming them without faith,
for it is evident that they do not have the
faith they are claiming. The only way to obtain
a thing from God is through faith, speaking of
those things which come to us through prayer. So
whatever of this nature we get from him, we must
take by faith, but when we take it by faith we
have it. When faith once gets her hands on a
thing, it is hers, but it is not hers until she
has hold upon it, and when she has gotten hold
of it, she has the consciousness of having it in
her grasp, the same as we have the consciousness
of having in our hands that which we have
grasped.
Doubts may come from various
sources. One source is a lack of knowledge of
God?s will. As long as we hold in question
whether it is God?s will to do a thing for us,
our faith cannot be active and strong in its
grasp. There will be an uncertainty about it
all. We need to get this question of God?s will
settled first. Sometimes this is very hard for
us to decide, but of one thing we may always be
sure ? that it is God?s will to give us what we
need and what we must have in order to serve him
successfully. God is willing to give. He does
not have to be forced to give because he has
promised. He does not have to be coaxed to give
it nor wheedled into granting our request. He
stands ready to fulfill his promises.
Ordinarily, therefore, when a need is presented
to us, we can take it for granted that it is
God?s will to supply that need, though he must
choose the way in which he will supply it.
Doubts often come because we feel
unworthy. We need something, and we desire it
very much. We do not doubt that God would give
it if we were more worthy to receive it. We
could readily believe that he would give it to
somebody else, but will he give it to us? If
what we receive depended upon our worthiness to
receive, we should certainly never receive very
much from God, but it does not depend upon our
worthiness. It depends upon his graciousness and
upon his mercy and upon his kindness and upon
his love. If we must wait until we are worthy of
his blessings, we shall never receive them. It
is often true that the most worthy Christians,
or those who are most godlike in their lives,
are the very ones who feel most unworthy. This
is so because they understand better and see
more clearly the perfections of God. There are,
of course, those whose lives are unworthy before
God and who for that reason cannot have faith to
receive, because their consciences trouble them.
These must needs get a clear conscience before
faith will take hold for other things. But those
true Christians who seek things of God never
have a strong feeling of their worthiness. It is
true that they can often say, like Hezekiah,
that they have lived perfect before the Lord up
to all their understanding; but notwithstanding
that, there is a sense of unworthiness before
God, so that they do not base their faith upon
their worthiness but upon the great
loving-kindness of God.
In order for us to have the
assurance of faith, the promises must come to
mean us and mean us now. In approaching God for
something, you ought to come to him as though
you were the only person in the world and that
the promise was especially made for you. You
should treat the promise just as though nobody
else had a share in it. The promises that cover
your needs are to you. They are to you and for
you just as much as though God had spoken them
directly to you personally and had included no
one else. Look upon them in this way. Treat them
this way, always bearing in mind that he must
choose his manner of fulfilling them.
Assurance is not emotion. You may
be sure that you own a farm. You may have a deed
for it, properly recorded. There may be no
claims of any sort against the farm. But though
you know all these facts, such knowledge may not
excite any emotion at all in you. You may be
ever so sure of it, not question it in the
least, and at the same time be perfectly
unemotional about it. The same is true many
times with the Christian experience. We may be
perfectly sure about it and yet not be able to
tell a thing from our emotions. The promises of
God are true whether they excite in us any
emotion or not. He has said, "I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). This is
true, no matter how lonely or deserted we feel,
so long as we trust. Your part is to trust and
obey. The rest belongs to God. Be concerned
about doing your part, but throw all the
responsibility for his part upon him. Do not try
to bear one bit of it yourself. Never try to
help God. He is able to do his own part. Never
worry and strain yourself about trying to have
faith. Just be easy and comfortable about
things. When the responsibility of anything is
thrown upon God, he will not shrink from that
responsibility, neither will he fail to bear it
properly.
A little incident from my own
experience may help the reader to understand
what I mean. I was once traveling in the
evangelistic work with two helpers. We had
arranged to go on Monday morning to a certain
town some distance away to begin a meeting. We
did not have the money to pay our railroad fare.
On Saturday we made our arrangements to go and
prayed the Lord to furnish the means which we
needed. On Sunday morning we went to the meeting
and had a glorious service. I forgot all about
money. On Saturday I had taken it for granted
that the Lord would supply our needs at that
meeting, but on the way home from the meeting,
something seemed to say to me, "Where is your
money?" and I suddenly remembered that I had
received nothing at all. I had asked the Lord
for it and had expected it to come, but it had
not come as I had expected. For a moment I did
not know what to say. Then I answered: "Well,
Lord you will have to look after that. We are
going to do our part." We went on a number of
miles to stay all night and found that a meeting
had been arranged for at that place; so I took
it for granted that our needs would be supplied
here. We had another very precious meeting, but
it closed and the people went home. I was
detained a little, but presently started for my
stopping place through the darkness. A voice
seemed to say to me, "Where is your money?" Here
it was late at night, and we were to start early
the next morning. But my confidence was in God,
and I threw the responsibility on him, saying:
"That is your business, Lord. We are doing our
part, and we expect you to do yours." I went on
my way not concerned about the matter, when
shortly I heard a voice calling after me. I
answered, and a man came running and put
something into my hand. When I reached my
lodging-place, I found that it was a bill
sufficient to pay all the expenses of our trip.
Do your part, be sure you have
done it, and then you can throw the
responsibility upon God. You need not worry, you
need not fear. He will not fail you. Cast all
your cares upon him, for he careth for you. Do
not think that God will not attend to his
business. Does he let the planets get out of
their orbits? Does he let the sun cease to
shine? Does he fail to bring spring after the
winter? Does he fail to give seed-time and
harvest? Be not fearful, but believing. He has
said that heaven and earth should pass away, but
that his word should never pass away; that is,
it is the most certain thing in existence. Plant
your feet firmly on the promise. Count it yours.
Rejoice in it.
The Relation of Works to Faith
All Catholics and most
Protestants trust in their good works more than
in God for salvation. This may seem a strong
statement, but many years of experience in
dealing with souls have brought me to that
conclusion. No matter how much the efficacy of
faith is preached, when it comes to the matter
of practical Christian living, most people trust
more or less in their works to make them
acceptable before God. They try to do something
to merit salvation, and after they are saved
they try to do something to merit God?s
approval. The ineffectiveness of such efforts is
made very plain by Paul. He says, "For by grace
are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works,
lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
There is absolutely no saving merit in works.
Salvation is a gift from God. Anything that is
purchased is not a gift. Anything that is ours
by right cannot be a gift to us. Salvation is
called the "free gift." It can never, therefore,
in any degree rest on our good works. Evil works
cut us off from God and grace, and so God
requires us to shut evil works out of our lives,
but simply shutting these evil works out of our
lives does not win for us salvation.
"I do right, therefore I am
right," is the usual formula. This makes works
precede faith, and makes faith dependent on
works. Those who base their standing before God
on their good works instead of upon his grace,
must continually question themselves whether
their good works are sufficiently good to
recommend them to God. If we could be saved in
that manner, we would be saved by faith in
ourselves, and not by faith in God. The true
formula is, "I am right, therefore I do right."
Acts get their quality from intent, and intent
comes from the state of the heart. There can be
no evil intent in a righteous heart, and hence
no evil act in the life. If the fountain is
clean, so is the stream; but if the fountain is
unclean, nothing that we can do to the stream
will cleanse the fountain. In Galatians 5:6 we
read of "faith which worketh by love." Faith is
therefore a motive power; and if there is true
faith abiding in us, it will work out in deeds
of love and kindness, of mercy, holiness, and
truth.
We should remember, however, that
it is not these deeds that make the faith nor
preserve it, but it is the faith that makes the
deed. James makes works the evidence of faith;
that is, faith is the tree and works are the
fruit. It is quite true that the fruit is of the
same character as the tree, but the fruit upon a
good tree is often marred by insects or drouth
or damaged by the weather. The fact that damaged
or imperfect fruit is taken from a tree does not
prove that the tree is not alright. It may only
prove that the circumstances prevented the
proper development of the fruit. So the fruit of
our faith may not always be perfect. We may now
and then come short of our expectations. There
may be things in our lives that we should like
to see better. We may be prevented by
circumstances from reaching the full development
of our lives and fruits as we should like to
have them developed. But nevertheless if we are
God?s, the true life-power is working in us.
Judging ourselves solely by the fruit that we
bear under unfavorable circumstances is no more
fair than judging the tree by the imperfect
fruit that may grow upon it. I am not arguing in
favor of wrongdoing. By no means. If God is in
us, our lives will be pure and our deeds will be
pure. The point that I wish to emphasize here is
that our faith should be in God and not in our
works. He who trust in his works may have
righteousness, but it is wholly a
self-righteousness; but he who trusts in the
righteousness of Christ imparted to him by the
Holy Spirit has the righteousness of God, which
is the "righteousness of faith." We are
righteous because God makes us righteous. We
remain righteous because he keeps us righteous.
Oh, that me would trust him to be their
righteousness instead of going about to
establish their own righteousness!
Living by Faith
"The just shall live by faith"
(Romans 1:17). The Christian graces flourish
only in the soil of faith. Under the influence
of doubt they droop and die. As already stated,
we should never trust in works in order to
maintain our righteousness. "We walk by faith,
not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). That inward,
conscious, satisfying knowledge of being right
with God can come only by faith. Some people are
always questioning their experiences. They
remind me of a man hiring out to work for
another man through harvest. All goes well the
first day, but the second morning he rises he
feels tired and sore from the work and probably
does not feel at all inclined to begin another
day?s labor. So he walks off the field and sits
down upon a stump while the rest of the laborers
go to work. Presently one comes up to him and
says, "What is the matter, John?" He looks
gloomy and says: "Oh, I don?t feel well this
morning. I think I?ve lost my job." He is
finally convinced that he has not lost his job,
and is persuaded to go to work, and he gets
along pretty well during the day. The next
morning it is cloudy, and he walks out into the
field again and sits down. Again he is asked
what is the matter, and his reply is: "Oh, it?s
so cloudy and threatening this morning. I think
I have lost my job." What do you suppose his
employer would say? Would it be, "I am sorry for
you; I think you had better go home"? No, it
would be, "Get busy there. We need your help."
Some Christians are all the time
troubling themselves about having lost their job
of serving the Lord. Whenever things are not
just as favorable as such Christians think they
ought to be, they begin to question themselves.
The Scripture says, "Know ye not ? that Jesus
Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2
Corinthians 13:5). He will not cast you off
unless you turn away from him. You will not lose
your job of serving him, unless you want to lose
it. If you do something that causes him to
discharge you, he will tell you plainly what it
is. He will not leave you to guess and wonder.
Obey him and trust him, and you will be his.
He who has faith has both arms
and armor. It is a defensive armor to shield us
against our foe. In I Thessalonians 5:8 Paul
calls it a breastplate. In Ephesians 6:16 he
says, "Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked." By this he means
that faith is our principal protection. With his
shield the ancient soldier stopped the arrows of
his adversary , and with the shield of faith we
may quench all the fiery darts that are shot at
our souls and turn aside all the other things
that would wound us. This is how we should use
it for defense: Disbelieve all that contradicts
God ? circumstances, people, feeling, or
whatever it may be. God is true no matter who or
what may testify to the contrary nor how strong
that testimony. If God is true, that which is
contrary to that which he says is false, and we
should treat it as being false. It is by faith
that we stand (Romans 11:20). We may be sure of
one thing; that is, that we shall never fall by
faith. We may fall by unbelief, but never by
faith. No soul ever went down trusting. Take God
at his word. You need not worry about falling.
Just believe. God has promised to protect you.
If you will build a form about you with your
faith, God will pour in the concrete until he
has made a solid, impenetrable wall all around
you.
Faith is not only our armor, but
also our weapons of offense. John said, "This is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
(I John 5:4, 5). In the eleventh chapter of
Hebrews we find a list of some of the wonderful
things wrought through faith. Through it armies
were put to flight, the dead brought to life,
and great obstacles overcome. It is our surest
weapon. Let us arm ourselves with it and go
forward to victory.
There is one foundation upon
which we can build which will never yield. Jude
speaks of it thus: "But ye, beloved, building up
yourselves on your most holy faith" (verse 20).
All other virtues must be built upon this
foundation. It is the only foundation for
Christian character or Christian attainment.
There is no solid foundation but this. It alone
will stand the tests of life?s storms. Do you
want to live a victorious life? Faith is the
victory. As long as you have faith, you have
victory, and you will keep the victory until you
surrender your faith. Therefore hold fast your
faith and confidence in God and in yourself.
There are hindrances to faith. We
may either hinder or help our faith. One way in
which it is often hindered is by making the
promise mean someone else instead of us. It is
often easier to have faith for others than for
ourselves, or it seems to be easier. It looks
very reasonable that God would answer the prayer
of others. The promise means other; of course it
does. But it means us just as well. We should
not think that it is easier for others to have
faith than it is for us. We should not think
that God is more likely to answer others than he
is to answer us. God wants us to have confidence
in our own prayers. He wants us to believe that
he will do as much for us as for others, and
that his promise means us just as well as anyone
else. His promise does mean us. God is no
respecter of persons. If our hearts are true to
him, he will hear us just as quickly as he will
hear anyone else. Do not let yourself get the
idea that your prayers will not be heard as
surely as the prayers of others. If you do, it
will be a hindrance to your faith. It is not
true. God gives the promise to us as well as to
anyone else, and he wants us to look upon it
that way, and act upon it that way. Your prayers
are just as acceptable as the prayers of any
other of God?s children. He will be as true to
his word in your case as in theirs. He will do
for you what he will do for them, if you
believe. God makes no difference between his
children. He treats them all alike if they
believe him alike and obey him alike.
Another hindrance to faith is the
idea that some people have, that they must work
themselves up to some emotional state or have
some particular feeling, in order to be heard.
There is a great difference between faith and
emotion. It is faith that brings the answer.
God?s promises are true no matter how we feel
about them. They are true absolutely and always,
and they will be made effectual for us according
to our needs if we will rely upon them. But God
fulfills his promises in his own way. We must
leave the choosing to him. But if we ask in a
submissive way, he always answers more wisely
than we ask. We must remember this one fact:
that God will not take dictation from us as to
how he shall answer. If we try to dictate to
him, we only put a barrier in the way of his
answering us. Therefore when you pray, pray
submissively, "Not my will, but thine be done."
Many people limit God in his
answering, because they are so sure just how it
ought to be that God must answer their way or
not at all. Is our wisdom greater than God?s? Do
we know what ought to be better than he knows?
Sometimes people will accept an answer only in
the way that they want it. God sees that they
are self-willed, and so he must deny them. We
cannot make God work according to our plan; we
must work according to his. When we pray without
submitting to his will, or give him the
privilege of answering in his own way, we are
wasting our time. Not only so, but we are
developing rebellion in our hearts against God.
He hates self-will and stubbornness. It shows
that we have more confidence in ourselves than
in him.
Confidence is the basis of faith.
John says: "Beloved, if our heart condemn us
not, then have we confidence toward God. And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we
keep his commandments, and do those things that
are pleasing in his sight" (I John 3:21, 22). We
cannot have faith over sin in the heart. Sin is
a barrier to faith unless there is repentance.
The heart must be right or seeking to be right
before faith can be effectual. Any unwillingness
in our hearts to do all we know of the will of
God or any drawing back from his commandments
will act as a barrier to our faith. If our
hearts bear us witness that we are doing the
will of God so far as we know it, this will
bring to us confidence. In this confidence we
can approach God, knowing that he will hear us.
Disobedience, or rebellion against anything that
we know to be the will of God, is ruinous to
faith, so that she cannot soar upward. Hezekiah
could pray to God with faith for his healing,
only because of the fact that his heart
testified to his uprightness of character and
his whole-hearted obedience.
Sometimes there are other things
besides sin that hinder our confidence in
ourselves before the Lord. Doubt, or anything
that makes us question our standing, will hinder
our faith. When anything comes up that makes us
question ourselves, we ought to have it settled
immediately, and not let it drag along to
trouble us. It is our privilege to have such
things settled without delay. When our good
judgment tells us that we have not sinned
against the Lord, we ought not to let ourselves
be troubled about other things. If God, for our
profit, has chastised us, or Satan has brought a
feeling of condemnation upon us, or whatever it
may be that troubles us, it is our privilege to
look to God through it all and count ourselves
victorious. Such things need not be a hindrance
to us if we will keep our confidence and our
integrity steadfast.
We also must have confidence in
God. We may know from a reasonable standpoint
that all God?s promises are true and true for
us, and still we may not have that assurance and
that confidence in him which enables us to lay
hold up on his promise and make it ours.
Sometimes we cannot bring ourselves to feel the
reality of his promises. This does not change
them nor render them untrue. The question is not
whether we feel that his promises are true, but
whether we will believe they are true and
appropriate them for ourselves.
Looking at ourselves or our
failures is also a great hindrance. There is
reason for every failure, but some things that
are called failures are not failures at all. It
is only God answering in a different way. There
are many failures because people give up too
soon. They are too quick to think that if others
have failed they also are sure to fail. If you
have failed in the past, it is not proof that
you will do so now. If you know a reason for
failure, get that reason out of the way; if you
can find no reason for failure, press right on
till you get what you desire.
Another hindrance is trying to
force faith. When we try to force it beyond its
natural limit, we weaken it. We do not need to
nerve ourselves up to the highest pitch in order
to have faith. In fact, that has nothing to do
with faith. When faith works at all, it works
easily and naturally, without any straining or
forcing. God is true, he has promised, and we
simply take it for granted that he will do as he
has promised, and rely upon that. That is faith;
that is a natural operation of faith; that is
the way faith reaches results. We have to
develop faith. Faith is not accidental. The
conditions favorable or unfavorable to it are
often of our own making. Spirituality is one
necessary condition. A careless life is poor
soil in which to develop faith. Anything that we
can do to develop our spirituality and draw
nearer to God will make faith work more
naturally and will make it stronger and more
effectual. Carelessness in our living, neglect
of prayer, and various other means by which we
are made less spiritual will react upon our
faith. We may build a good foundation for future
action of faith by reading the Scriptures and
impressing forcibly upon our minds that ?"this
promise is true." Whenever a doubt comes to your
mind, challenge it and overbalance it with the
assertion that "God is true and his Word is
true." This is the way to cure your doubts. You
know that God is true. Meet every doubt with a
positive assertion of his trueness. Make this
your daily habit. Whenever the Word of God comes
to your mind, refresh yourself with the thought
of its absolute truthfulness. God is true, and
God is true to you. Never give place to a
suggestion to the contrary, for it is not, and
cannot be, the truth. Follow out this plan of
impressing upon your heart and mind that God is
true and that his Word is true, and you will
find him becoming more and more real to you.
Seeking should always be definite
and persistent, and always with a definite goal.
To seek for a little while and then without an
answer to give up seeking, weakens faith. Do not
pray haphazardly, just saying words to fill
space. We can commune with God, speaking out to
him all that is in our hearts; but when it comes
to the concentration of faith on some particular
point to bring results, there must be earnest
and definite action. The best way I know to
increase faith is this: When you feel anything
to be necessary or to be the will of God for you
to have, go to asking him and keep right on till
you get an answer. One answered prayer is worth
more than a thousand prayers unanswered. Do not
pray at random; always make your prayers
definite. Put faith into them. Many prayers are
prayed that people do not expect to get any
answer to. They would be very much surprised at
getting an answer. Why do they pray such
prayers? Are not such prayers an insult to God?
Do not play the fool with God. Do not ask a
thing unless you mean it and want it and are
willing to throw your faith into the seeking to
get it. If you do not mean business, you had
better keep quiet; and if you do mean business,
keep on till you accomplish what you set out to
do, or find a good reason for not doing so. If
God shows that it is his will not to grant what
you ask, that is reason enough; but get an
answer of some kind.
Some get into trouble, and their
faith fails, and they wonder why, when the real
secret lies in their careless habits of prayer.
They have formed a habit of praying for things a
while and then giving up without an answer, and
when they come to a place of real need, the
habit of giving up asserts itself and faith
fails. Continuity is a necessary quality of the
faith that wins; continuity can be developed
only by continual practice. Do not expect to
develop faith in a crisis of need. God is often
pleased to give us special faith for a special
need; but in general he expects us to develop
the faith we need through the daily use of what
we already have. Do not look upon strong faith
as a thing that is to you unattainable. It is
unattainable only to those who are too indolent
or too careless to do what is necessary to
attain it. You will never find faith as you
might find someone?s lost purse. It will never
come to you by accident. It is a thing that must
be developed, and we must work with God to bring
about that development.
There are some people who were
naturally strong in faith, but who in some way
have become baffled in their faith. A reaction
of some sort appears to have come upon them.
They seem unable to rely upon the promises of
God as they formerly did. In a way, they believe
them just as much as they ever did, but they
seem to have lost the power to grasp them and
make them their own. Whatever may have been the
cause of the weakening of their faith, the
important thing now is the restoration of that
faith. This is sometimes very difficult. People
in this condition ought to be treated with the
greatest care and consideration. Condemning them
or blaming them will never help them out. The
important thing is to find where the trouble is
and to help them build up their faith again. I
know something of this relaxation of faith by
personal experience, and I know that it cannot
be regained by radical action. As a rule, the
recovery is gradual. People in this relaxed
condition need our sympathy and our help rather
than our condemnation. Their faith needs
encouragement, and it is only through this that
it can overcome and rise to the normal again.
There are two ways in which God
answers prayer. One is that he hears our
requests and gives immediately that which we
desire. The other is that he grants our request
and gives us the consciousness of such granting,
but does not bestow the thing asked until a
later time. To illustrate: A boy comes to his
father and asks, "Father, will you let me have
your knife?" The father says, "Yes, my son," and
takes it from his pocket and gives it to him at
once. Another child come sup to him and says,
"Papa, will you get me a new hat?" He says,
"Yes, my son," but perhaps he does not purchase
the new hat for a week or two. In both cases the
request is granted, but in one instance the
asker gains immediate possession of the object
desired, while in the other the asker does not
receive the desired object at once. So sometimes
when we come to God, he gives us immediately
what we ask of him; we obtain possession of it
at once. At other times we have the
consciousness that he has granted our petition,
but possibly we may have to wait some little
time before the thing wanted actually comes into
our possession. When it is granted, it is ours,
in one respect, just as much as though we had
it, but we do not have the joy of possession nor
the use of the object until it is actually
bestowed upon us. It is at this time ? when we
realize that our petition is granted and still
we do not possess that which we desire ? that we
"have need of patience, ? that we might receive
the promise." Sometimes in praying for healing
there is the assurance that God hears, the he is
pleased to heal, and a consciousness that he is
granting our request; but at the same time there
may be no manifestation of the healing power in
our bodies. At such times we can confidently
wait, looking forward to the coming of the
healing. Of course, we do not have the healing
in our possession until the work is wrought in
our bodies, but the answer to our prayer may be
granted. At such times we need only to have
faith, and God will manifest himself in power to
us when it is his good pleasure to do so.
Faith and Testimony
Overlooking the fact just stated,
people sometimes get the evidence or assurance
of their healing and testify that they are
healed when, in reality, there has been no
change in their bodies. People look upon them
and perceive no difference. They seem to be
exactly as they were before, and they act the
same as they did before, and still they claim to
be healed. We are not really healed until the
work is done in our bodies, though if God has
answered our prayer, we are just as sure of the
healing as if the work were already done. We
ought, however, to be wise in our testimony. If
God has given us the assurance of healing, let
us testify to that assurance. We can testify to
what we have, and look with confidence and
expectation to the coming of the healing power.
We ought, however, to be careful as to the
extent of our testimony, and not let it go
beyond the mark. When God says yes to our
prayers, we can rejoice in that, just as the
little boy could rejoice at his father?s promise
to buy him a new hat; but he could not rejoice
in its possession, and neither an we rejoice in
possession until the thing desired is actually
bestowed.
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