Faith When it's Tough
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Intro
Intro
As most of you know, last week I had to take my comprehensive exams for my Master’s program. They’re very difficult tests, and it’s been a busy semester, so I was not feeling at all confident about them. In fact, I was so worried that I wouldn’t pass, that I had almost decided against asking people to pray for me because I knew that they would want to know the results later, and I would be ashamed to admit that I failed.
Eventually, I realized the folly of such a line of thought, so I asked people to pray. I studied and studied, but when test day came, to my horror, the question that I had been the most worried about was over a topic I hadn’t really studied. I stared blankly at the screen for several minutes before writing something down and I knew that my answer was only part of what they had asked for and full of inaccuracies. I had done everything I could and yet, still didn’t feel confident about how I’d done. My faith began to waver. I felt like I had about a 50/50 shot at passing. Doubt began to creep in and I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake in asking people to pray. Already people were asking how I’d done. I was a bundle of nerves. Dread began to creep in, and as I waited for my exam results over the next week, I became more and more sure that I was going to fail. I must have checked my email 500 times between Monday morning and Thursday afternoon, when I finally got my results.
Ultimately, I passed. But just barely. In fact, by just about any standard of measuring, I probably did worse on that exam than any exam I’ve ever taken. I know of another guy who studied much more than me who did fail, and reading the comments my professors left on one of my questions left me wondering just how in the world I did pass! One of my professors called my attempt at using logical notation ‘non-standard…and mostly uninterpretable.’ So…nailed it!
My point is simply this—there was a VERY real risk that I would not pass these exams. In fact, it seemed probably more probably that I wouldn’t pass than that I would pass. It seemed as if the outcome of these exams depended entirely upon how smart I was and how hard I studied, and I didn’t measure up in either aspect. Other students had been already been studying for weeks before I started studying, and other students were a lot smarter and better at linguistics than I was.
Perhaps it’s been a while since you’ve taken a test like that. But I think the experience is still applicable. Have you ever been in a position where it seemed like the outcome was almost certain to be negative? Perhaps when faced with health issues—exams of a medical kind!—the results didn’t look promising. Or, maybe you’re in a situation with your job or finances where it seems like you just can’t muster up enough smarts or hard work to meet the challenge and failure seems certain. Perhaps when you think of your standing before God you think, “You don’t know what I’ve done. I don’t deserve to be saved.”
Hebrews 11 shows us that those are the exact kinds of situations where faith is the most needed. And, it shows us that acceptance in God’s eyes is not dependent upon what we’ve done or can do, but upon what God can do and has already done in Christ.
Faith is only required when you can’t see the outcome.
Faith is only required when you can’t see the outcome.
Faith when you’re confident about the outcome isn’t really faith.
Faith when you’re confident about the outcome isn’t really faith.
When I hop in my car and take off to Little Rock, never doubting or wondering in my head if I’ll actually make it to my destination, that’s not faith, that’s just presumption.
We go through life with thousands and thousands of presumptions. We assume that we’ll take another breath, that we’ll go on living another day, that our homes won’t collapse on top of us, that we’ll still have our job tomorrow—those assumptions aren’t faith, because we’re not even conscious of their uncertainty
But, when our daily assumptions are called into question—when we realize that our job might not be there tomorrow, or that we might not wake up tomorrow morning—then there’s an opportunity for faith.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
The nature of faith is that it’s only really necessary when it’s really difficult.
The nature of faith is that it’s only really necessary when it’s really difficult.
things hoped for and things not seen are, by definition, very uncertain. They are things about which you could ordinarily NOT have any assurance.
But the paradoxical nature of faith is that it is assurance of those things which you ordinarily couldn’t have any assurance about! It’s the conviction that God is real and his promises true when you have no tangible evidence.
Faith that is only present when it’s easy to believe isn’t real faith. Faith isn’t faith until it’s tested and refined.
A friend texted me the other day and said this: “It’s crazy how God keeps putting you in places where you can only rely on Him because there’s no other way you’d make it.”
Well, that’s the nature of faith, isn’t it? Show me a person with great faith and I’ll show you a person who has been repeatedly put in tough situations where everything they assumed was called into question—their job, their home, their health, their family, their friendships, and their identity.
We are not made righteous in God’s eyes by our own good deeds.
We are not made righteous in God’s eyes by our own good deeds.
The Hall of Faith is probably one of the most scandalous passages in Scripture
The Hall of Faith is probably one of the most scandalous passages in Scripture
What's really interesting about the people in Hebrews 11 is how...colorful...they are. It’s filled with epic failures whom the writer of Hebrews hails as heroes of the faith!
Abraham was a polygamist
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Sarah laughed at God’s promise (to his face!)
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
The people of Israel—the ones who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years!
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
Rahab was a foreign prostitute
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
And these guys!
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
Gideon seemed bent upon putting God to the test
Samson a womanizer (and not all that bright...)
Jephthah?!?! The “son of a prostitute” turned child sacrificer?
1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
...and the list goes on and on. They weren't perfect--far from it! In fact, The list in Hebrews 11 seems rather scandalous if you think about it. These are the "heroes" of the faith?!?! Really?
In fact, really the only thing any of these people did right was trusting in God. And that's precisely the point.
In fact, really the only thing any of these people did right was trusting in God. And that's precisely the point.
Sometimes I fall prey to the lie that if I don't meet some arbitrary standard of "minimum acceptable effort" then God won't "meet me halfway." I don't consciously think it, but sometimes the way I act reveals a deep-seated belief that I have to earn God's approval and blessings.
But the Bible is FULL of examples of broken people whom God used in spite of their brokenness and inadequacies.
We are only righteous in God’s eyes through faith in his righteousness.
We are only righteous in God’s eyes through faith in his righteousness.
Look at all the passives!
Look at all the passives!
A passive verb is a verb where the subject is not the one doing the action--”John was beaten by Bob.” (Subject—John, Agent—Bob)
Examples of passives in Heb 11:
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
I'm grateful to God for that reminder this week. I don't have to be smart enough. I don't have to work hard enough. I don't have to "pick myself up by my bootstraps." I don't have to meet God halfway. I don't have to meet some arbitrary standard of "good-enough-ness." All I have to do is take God at his Word.
Faith can be confident because it is rooted in God’s character, not in our own.
Faith can be confident because it is rooted in God’s character, not in our own.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.