Faith

It’s a strange concept. It’s almost too grand to really understand. Most people define it as the belief in something unseen. The Apostle Paul defines faith as, “…confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NIV.

To me, faith is trust, wholly and completely.

One of the things I want to work on this year is my faith. To grow my faith. Sometimes, I can be stubbornly independent. I was raised to be self-sufficient, and it is one of the qualities I admire about myself. I can travel alone, I can live alone, I can survive alone. I’ve come to realize not all people have this characteristic and most people prefer not to do things independently. It is a welcomed thing when we can truly rely on another person in times of need.

As my relationship has grown with God it has been made overwhelmingly clear that independence isn’t what God wants of me. On the contrary He wants my full trust. My faith. 

Jesus tells us, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word, and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life” John 5:24 NIV. That definitely takes faith, or trust, to believe Jesus’ words. And I do, completely. But that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle in other areas of my faith.

Prayer

I’ve recently been wrestling in my prayer life. 

Jesus taught his disciples about faith and prayer. In Mark 11:24 NIV Jesus states, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

I’ve been praying a lot for a situation that, without God’s miraculous intervention, will end in tragedy. I have faith in the miracles of God. If God can merely speak and our whole world is formed, then answering my prayer is effortless to His power. But what about His will?

Having faith in God is more than knowing He can do anything; it’s also trusting that what He does will be the best possible outcome. And at its core that is what prayer is, a request for the best outcome. And what we think is best and what God thinks is best can be polar opposites. 1st John 5:14-15 NIV tells us, “This is the confidence (or faith) we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.” 

Confused yet? Because I totally was. 

In the situation I am praying for I don’t want the outcome to be tragic, but I also want to be obedient to God’s will. What if His best possible outcome is the outcome that I’m praying against? Am I not praying according to His will?

I’ve been so caught up in this angst that I’ve asked everyone for an explanation except God himself. He is so patient with me, and so gracious when I’m being completely stubborn in my independence. This past Sunday it finally dawned on me to go straight to the source, and I asked God to explain my conundrum through his word, the Bible. 

I literally opened up my Bible and it was right there, right where I had marked the page I needed to read next for my daily Bible study. God is so good! And the way God explained things to me was so brilliant.

So, there I was, reading in Jeremiah chapter 32 and the section heading I turned right to, was Jeremiah Prays for Understanding. Can you believe it? It astounds me still, His mysterious ways. 

In this chapter, Jeremiah has been instructed by God to buy a field in Judah. All the while Judah is being invaded by the Babylonians. In fact, Jeremiah has been told over and over again by God that the Babylonians will succeed in conquering the Israeli people. It doesn’t make sense for Jeremiah to own property in a land that will no longer be inhabited by the Israeli people. God even says that the land will be desolate, and no one will want to live there because it will be so bad.

But Jeremiah is obedient and does what God says and buys the land. But he doesn’t understand and so he prays for understanding. He even tells God that he knows God is creator of the whole universe and can do anything he wants, but he doesn’t understand why God is having him do this. 

God answers him by saying, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27 ESV. God explains to Jeremiah that he meant what he said about the Babylonians conquering Israel, but that he would not break his covenant with Israel about them being his chosen people. I’m sure Jeremiah was confused as to how God was going to keep this promise if the Israeli people were eventually going to be exiled due to the Babylonian invasion. But God knows the best possible outcome and in order to achieve the best possible outcome, the Israeli people needed to first be exiled. 

As you read on about the history of the Jews, they would eventually return to their homeland and that plot of land that Jeremiah bought would now make sense. The Jewish people would buy and sell land again, just like they did before the Babylonian invasion. 

At the end of the chapter God tells Jeremiah, “…for I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord” Jeremiah 32:44 ESV. This statement made all the difference to me in understanding the power of faith in prayer.

Maybe God’s will for the situation I’m praying for doesn’t end in a miracle here on earth. That doesn’t seem very fortunate to me right now. The exiled Jews had to wait seventy years to return to Israel. Maybe I’ll have to wait until I see the Lord face to face to know that my prayer was answered in His best possible outcome. But I can be absolutely certain, with faith the size of a mountain, that God will restore fortunes. Miraculous fortunes. Fortunes that I will not be able to comprehend until I see Him in all his glory in heaven.

Faith in Prayer, it truly makes all the difference.

“So the last will be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:16 ESV