Faith is defined as
reliance, loyalty or complete trust in God, and the Scriptures define it as, “The
confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance
about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). In short, faith believes that
through God, the seemingly impossible will happen!
Facts are the hard
evidence of a case or situation that cannot be disputed. Facts predict the
outcome of a situation. For instance, when the Israelites left Egypt en route
to the Promised Land, they had a number of challenges to overcome. One of their
challenges was finding themselves sandwiched between the Red Sea in front of
them and the Egyptian armies pursuing them from behind, with nowhere to go.
Here are the facts about the Red Sea: it’s too deep to wade; it is impassable
from one bank to the other without an adjoining bridge, a boat, or an airplane.
Nevertheless, God miraculously made a way for the Israelites to cross it,
getting to the opposite bank safely, on foot, and on dry ground.
Based on known facts,
one could have predicted that the Israelites were going to perish, either at
the hand of their enemies, or by drowning in the sea, but that’s not what
happened; they got across safely without bridges, boats, or airplanes. The
Egyptian army, in its pursuit of the Israelites faced the same facts like the
Israelites, but without God in the equation, they drowned when they attempted
to follow the Israelites on dry ground.
This is where faith and
facts part company: if you walk into a grocery store with no money (fact), you
can’t expect to walk out with a bag of paid groceries. Faith however, can allow
you to walk into the store with no money, and walk out with a bag of paid groceries,
and maybe, even some extra cash in your pocket. Here’s the definition of faith
as a math equation:
No money plus (+) complete trust in God to provide
needed groceries (equals) =paid bag of groceries at no cost to you! That is how
faith works in all seemingly impossible situations.
One of the things that
saddened Jesus during His time here on earth was the lack of faith among the
people and especially, His own disciples (see Matthew 17:14-19). Although they’d
all witnessed His power at work, time and time again, they never seemed to
remember it when a need arose later! On a storm-tossed sea with Jesus in the
boat, the disciples were alarmed; they woke Him up, “Master, Master, we’re
going to drown” (Luke 8:24 NLT). After He rebuked the storm, He asked them,
“Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25 NLT). Jesus must have found that very disappointing;
did they really think they were going to drown with Jesus on board the boat?
Can a boat drown with
Jesus on board? No! But then, why do we sometimes behave as if that were
possible? The Scriptures teach us, “It is impossible to please God without
faith” (Hebrews 11:6 NLT). We need to have and exercise faith, if we’d like to
be pleasing to God, because after all, He’s promised us, “I will never fail you,
I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:6 NLT). Also, He encourages us, “Don’t
worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need,
and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 6:6 NLT). Which portion of
these promises don’t I understand, and what about them don’t you understand? We need to stop worrying so much!
Worrying does not change
anything, (see Matthew 6:27); only the prayer of faith and the Spirit of God (Zechariah
4:6) can move the supposed mountains we worry about. The Scripture commands us,
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7
NLT). When we pray more specifically and remind ourselves about God’s promises
and past provisions, our fears, worries, and concerns will disappear. The facts
we know about a situation don’t have to have any bearings on the outcome, because
faith in the power of God makes all the difference, it makes possible, the
seemingly impossible!
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