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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Mature
Faith Over the decades I have
heard Christians say they need more faith as if faith was a commodity they
can get more of. I've been
told that if I could only get enough faith my legally blind eyes would
have been healed years ago. This
kind of talk tells me that many of us do not understand how the Bible
defines faith in Jesus. In
Biblical terms, faith is trust because that is the meaning of the Greek
word "pistis" that is translated into our English New Testament
as faith, believe, and trust. That
being so, do we need to knock our heads against the proverbial wall trying
hard to get more trust? Thinking that faith is a
commodity we can get more of is promoted by the heretical hyper-faith
teaching that states that if we have sufficient faith, anything and
everything is possible. It's a
mind game that differs little from the New Age Movement's thinking
concerning our human abilities.
This approach to faith began to take root in Christian circles in
the late 1800's due to the spread of metaphysical theory.
It's sad that Christians are influenced by this unbiblical meaning
of faith. If faith is trust, then,
aggressively knocking on the gates of heaven for more trust seems
illogical to me. Do I need
more trust or do I need to trust more?
Is trust an aggressive action or a passive action?
When I relax in my favourite arm-chair am I aggressively trusting
that it won't cave in on me or am I resting in its reliability.
If faith is trust, how can I trust more?
1 Peter 1:7 states that
our faith, our trust in Jesus matures and is proven genuine when it is
tested through trials. Enduring
hardship, then, is the means whereby trust in Jesus matures.
If we pass a test of trust, the result is that we trust Jesus more
after the test than we did before the test.
Beyond that, Romans 12:3 tells us that Jesus gives us faith.
I understand that to mean He provides the ability to help us trust
Him. If someone tells me that
if I can somehow muster up more faith I will be healed of my blindness, I
reject that outright. I trust
my life with Jesus despite all of life's tough tests I encounter daily
due to my legally blind eyes. I've
passed countless tests of faith in my life.
The fact that I still trust Jesus after all these years of tests
speaks to me having mature faith. If you want more faith,
think of faith as trust because that is how the Bible defines faith.
Read Hebrews 3 and 4 and you will note that faith is associated
with the passive action of rest. Faith
is a restful assurance that you can rely on Jesus no matter the
circumstances. So, if you
think you need more faith, that will take you through many testing trials
of trust.
Pass the test, with the help of Jesus, and your faith in Him will
mature. Post Script To learn more about my world you can read my book entitled "The Funny, Embarrassing, And Sad Stories Of Being Legally Blind," under the name Stephen Sweetman, on all Amazon sites. It's one of 60 books I've written, all on Amazon.
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