St. John Studies

Do we have enough faith in our faith?

That sounds like a strange question but it not so strange when the result of our prayer is a no from God.

When the answer is no, we start asking “what is the problem?”

God “powers the system” but our faith is important because our faith permits God to work, or so we think.

Faith insecurity comes into play. Did I say the right words? Did my friends who prayed with me have enough faith? Should I have fasted? Should I have claimed a different promise? Inevitably we begin to think about ourselves when the result of prayer is a no.   We may even wonder why a friend gets positive results and we get negative results. What are they doing that is right? What are we doing that is wrong?   Things can even get worse.   We can begin to doubt that God really loves us, His justice is not as perfect as we thought it was and maybe God is not as good as we once believed.

We need to stop all this second guessing and realize that God is God.   We don’t have to have all the self- doubt. I believe that God accepts the Christian where the Christian is and granted, some brothers and sisters seem further along in their walk with God than others. Life will always be that way. No matter what you believe and how strongly you believe it, there will always be others who seem to have more solid belief than you have.   It is so easy to fall into the trap of comparison. That is a fruitless thing to do.

Let’s think about some other possibilities.

The answer is no because God loves you. That sounds counter-intuitive but could it be correct? I always have unanswered prayers. Right now some of mine are very particular. Instead of doubting my faith, maybe God has told me no because He has faith in me. Maybe He thinks I don’t have to have a positive response; my faith can withstand the lack of positive reinforcement.

Another possibility is God knows that each of His children has different needs. Everyone is unique; different genes, different experiences and different abilities. He treats us differently because each of us is different.

Another explanation may be that since God has said no, we can turn to others for encouragement and support. What does this do? It reinforces the idea that we need to be loved by one another.   That is a basic message from God the Father, a message He wants us to understand.

Lastly, we know that a positive answer would allow us to glorify God. We would take that positive response and sing His praises.   But maybe God wants us to grow more in our relationship with Him before the answer is positive.   That is a good thing.   Maybe we need to learn from more mature believers, tap into our Holy Spirit, learn to pray with more urgency, read His Holy Word etc.   In short, we need to expand our relationship, not doubt it.

Seen from these four perspectives, unanswered prayer is not evidence that we lack faith necessarily. We just don’t see things the way our Holy Father does.

Too often we get so upset about getting the negative response. We want our way…

Instead of doubting that we have enough faith, it may be better to just say this to God: “Lord I have the faith to get what I need: I need it.” Faith in God says “Lord, give me faith to accept what you want: I need you.”*

*from W. Bingham Hunter The God Who Hears [162-63].

Well, I have my needs. [Don’t we all?] I think I am going to take them to God in prayer. I make my supplications and sit back and relax.   I know God is going to take care of my concerns…

Wouldn’t it be nice if it was this simple?

The only requirement for a positive response is to believe in God…

Christians are often confused about the role of their faith in their prayers.

Many take literally the verses in Matthew 7: 9-11 that say “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”

Does it really work like that? What many of us fail to remember is that no matter what happens in our lives, we are not in control; God is.

One needs to look at what W. Bingham Hunter calls the key characteristics of God to understand how prayers of the faithful are answered.

First, there is God’s omnipotence. He has the ability to deliver whatever we ask. After all, He created the world. In Jeremiah’s prayers he says “Ah Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens, and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”   We need to believe that God can do anything but that does not mean that He will. The faithful person may think that God gives them what Hunter calls a “blank check.”   They just fill in the request and expect to be able to cash it; Mark 9:23 “everything is possible for him who believes.”

The truly faithful person knows that God can deliver but he delivers according to what He has revealed about Himself and His promises in Scripture.   Hunter uses the Old Testament example of Abraham and Sarah.  God promised them that they would have a child.   They could believe in that but God did not tell them how or when the child would be born.   What should they have believed?   They should have believed that God would act…and He did in His way and in His own time.

Secondly, the faithful person can know that God is wholly good, gracious and compassionate. You may ask why is this so important? If we know that God can and will act, we have to believe that He will act in our own best interest.   Here is where many Christians fail to “let go and let God”.   They think they know what they want because they think they know what they need.   In reality, God knows what you need better than you do. Hunter says it best: “faith trusts in God rather than insisting on its own way”.   We need to ask but then we need to let God decide how our prayers are to be answered.   Will we get something that we did not ask for? Maybe. Will we get no answer at all? Maybe.

As Christians we want to discern the will of God. Wouldn’t that be nice? We could tap into the mind of God and know how our prayers are going to turn out. We don’t have to do that.   All we have to do is have faith: faith that God can act and faith that He will act in a gracious and compassionate manner.

Hunter uses the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the blazing furnace as a wonderful example. Of course the men wanted to be saved from the furnace so they had specific concerns but their faith was in God rather than their ability to discern His will.   By believing in an omnipotent God that had their best interests at heart, they acknowledged the divide between creatures and Creator. By trusting in God Himself, they understood that famous part of the Lord ’s Prayer that goes like this: “thy will be done.”

In our prayers the most important phrase we should say to God would be “if it be Thy will.”

Banking on faith…

Let’s be realistic about how many of us think about our faith in God. W. Bingham Hunter* states that “growing numbers of Christians have been led to believe that faith is something they must generate themselves (almost out of nothing) if God is to respond to their prayers” [Hunter, 155].

You might ask, what is the problem with this conceptualization?

It makes faith a commodity that we must exchange for answers to prayer.   If you have enough faith, your prayers are answered.   If you lack faith, you are probably not going to get an answer. You may think that Hunter gets a little cynical as he comments that maybe fasting can add to your faith exchange rate. Maybe you can get two or three others to pray for you and that will add more value to the mix. If you are still not getting an answer, you need to consider enlisting the prayer of a righteous intercessor.   That type of Christian has more faith than they need themselves and maybe their loan of faith can put you over the top.

Seriously though, what are the real negatives of thinking of faith as a commodity that must be offered up for answered prayer? One thing is our dangerous obsession in this culture with measuring ourselves by observing others around us.   Why is God choosing to bless my neighbor’s finances and He is refusing to bless me or I deserve a healing; I am a person of great faith.   My friend is getting healed and I am not. Comparing ourselves to others is bad enough but the second negative could be the worst. It is pure disillusionment with God. When we think we are offering God our best faith we get upset when we are not getting what we want out of Him.   We literally begin to lose faith that we even have a valid relationship with Him.

What is a scriptural reference that speaks to how we are to approach God with our faith? Hebrews 11:6 says “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.”

This scripture does say that belief in God’s existence is an essential for approaching God. Why would we pray to God if we did not believe that He exists? Many of you may be thinking that is just too simple but in our world today, we often think we are constantly in a cocoon of safety. We can control life so well that we don’t need God on a daily basis. Maybe we have a habit of thinking we don’t need to depend on God for much. For some, the only time we get serious about God is when life is interrupted by some illness, accident or bankruptcy.

The second thing we can draw from Hebrews is that we must believe in God’s moral character. He is just in how He rewards those who seek Him. Hunter actually uses the metaphor of a hang glider to explain how important it is to know God’s character. “Your belief that you can work a hang glider is not as important as the quality of the glider. We may be able to believe that God exists, but the important thing is who God is” [Hunter, 156].

Hunter points to three sources of God knowledge: His creation, His creatures and His self-revelation in scripture.   Some can believe in God by looking at the order of nature, the design of nature and the beauty of nature. Others believe in God by human nature and human testimony about the existence of God. Hunter admits the most certain source of information about God is revealed in His written Word, the Bible.

In future posts, we will elaborate on how we can get to know God better but I will warn you that increasing your knowledge of God takes time.   Hunter says it best: “Faith, the ability to trust God is like a plant. It takes time to grow and requires consistent exposure to the light of God’s Word.”

People who like quick results will be disappointed.

I don’t believe that an exchange of our faith is what is needed for effective prayer. Knowledge of God is what is needed. Knowledge is the key element because we can begin to understand who God is.

Returning to the banking theme: getting a quick increase in our knowledge of God may be very desirable, but slow, steady, regular investment of time is the way to know God.   Trying to develop knowledge of God without reading His Word will just lead to frustration.   There is very little return on very little investment.

Author of The God Who Hears

How do you define faith?

As Christians, we purport that we have it, but what is it that we have?

In Christian circles, I have always heard faith referred to in a subjective way. It is a personal relationship we have with God. Often faith is treated like a private experience, “just between me and my Lord.” This secret relationship is ok but it leads to many Christians feeling like it matters less what they believe; they are just proud that they believe anything.

But this subjective approach makes it hard for the Christian to define faith…

The personal relationship with God does make sense in one aspect. We are all unique human beings and therefore God does mean something different for each one of us. No one’s perception is quite like another’s.

However, Jesus claimed it does matter whom and what you believe. In James, we see Jesus declaring that “no one comes to the Father except through Me” [14:6]. Peter’s words are similar: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” [Acts 4:12].   Jesus told Thomas to “reach here with your finger” showing him objective proof of His resurrection.

Faith is still a matter of irrationality for many Christians. Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Since many people never see their hopes come to fruition, clinging to faith seems like clinging to an impossible dream.

We don’t have the privilege of seeing Jesus perform miracles like the Disciples did and yet even they had their weak moments. Matthew 8:26 has Jesus calling His disciples “you of little faith.”   They had seen the miracles and those facts formed the backbone of their faith.

Yet at times even this was not enough for them.

So here we are again; what is faith?  Bingham Hunter* defines faith as a “rational response to the evidence of God’s self-revelation in nature, human history, the Scriptures and His resurrected Son” [Hunter, 153].

But here is where we fall short on faith: “total personal commitment, the willingness to entrust the whole of one’s being to God without reservation” [Hunter, 153]. Even though it is hard to think about, it is in the moment of death where we can commend ourselves totally to our Lord and Savior. Jesus commended Himself to God when His moment of death occurred on the cross.   The martyr Stephen commended himself to God when he met his death at his stoning: “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.”   At those moments a believer puts trust in God himself, His character, His ability and the truth of His promises.

What is faith? It is the moment where we have to turn to God and God alone.   Having faith in our faith will not be enough.   Hunter goes so far as to say that having faith in our faith is a “fatal mistake.” Jesus and Stephen faced death certain that their hope for resurrection was well placed in God.

As Christians, we often define faith as something we need to exercise, but faith is a gift which God gives us because we cannot exercise it on our own. We are blinded by Satan but God justifies us by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Salvation is received by our personal faith in God, but even faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8 “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

So how do we define faith?  It is an intersection between a sovereign God and man.   God offers the gift of faith to us.

We have to make a personal decision to accept it.

*author of The God Who Hears

Conflict and disagreement are a part of life. I must admit however that I am not comfortable in conflict situations. I prefer peace to the tense environment of conflict. However, we all know that God made so many varieties of human beings that it is impossible that we will avoid differences of opinion. Sometimes difference of opinion escalates to the point that disagreement can occur and conflict and words and actions that are offensive can result.

What must we do when this occurs?

As Christians we need to step back from conflict and seek and give forgiveness. Bingham Hunter* states “Hostility and an unforgiving spirit are acids which destroy our capacity to worship and pray. When sin and discord exist between Christians, God is troubled…hostility between believers hinders acceptable praise and worship” [Hunter, 147].

It is pretty obvious what Jesus feels on this subject. In the Sermon on the Mount, He relates that if you are offering a gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift on the front of the altar. First go and reconcile to your brother and then offer your gift.

Obviously interpersonal reconciliation is more important than worship; worship offered before reconciliation is unacceptable to God.   In Ephesians 4: 30-31, it says “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”

We need to know that God expects us to be kind and compassionate toward one another, forgiving each other, just as God has forgiven each of us. Bingham Hunter’s book is all about prayer and it takes a long, in-depth look at something that some Christians take for granted, others struggle with and still others neglect prayer except for rote prayer that we learn in going to church.   As we leave chapter 11 on prayers for forgiveness, it is important to note that an unforgiving heart will kill prayer. We need to learn to forgive.

If we obey God’s admonitions to forgive we can begin to know the mind of God, we can even begin to pray according to His will. If we do not obey God and forgive, we grow distant from God.   We have trouble knowing His will and praying according to it.

Sometimes as I have read and commented on this book on prayer, I realize that I have fallen short on many of the topics of concern. I am not one who engages in enough thankful prayer; I have been chastened and I don’t know how to pray the prayer of the chastened disciple. My intercessory prayer is sometimes weak and half-hearted and yes I have harbored hurt in the past. I have to admit however, as I have gotten older I don’t have negative feelings toward others much anymore. I do remember holding grudges and negative feelings for others over long periods of time in my younger days.   Maybe I have grown to accept that differences will occur and I try harder to understand other peoples’ positions.

When it comes to falling short, Hunter’s closing words of chapter 11 are worth quoting. “Thankfully, our God is a loving and forgiving Father—even when His children are neither. I’ve said what I’ve said …to motivate you to love and to encourage and to forgive. My purpose is not to crush or accuse. God hears the prayer of those who struggle to do His will. If you have been unloving or know you should seek reconciliation or grant forgiveness, ask Him for the Spirit’s help, and by faith try to be obedient to His word. It is not easy. But the freedom and liberty which comes in worship and prayer when we get rid of such clutter in our spiritual lives is definitely worth the cost” [149].

Author of The God Who Hears

In a recent conversation I had with two Christian friends, they recounted several experiences when they were wronged, they forgave the offender and offered help and they were wronged again. This grated on their nerves and they stated “we felt like we were used.”

Can the focus on forgiveness that we see in the Christian faith set us up as “easy marks” for unscrupulous individuals? W. Bingham Hunter* says it like this: “Being a forgiver is one thing. But being a whipping post is another.”

There is guidance in God’s Word on this matter. Peter asked Jesus how many times should he forgive his brother when his brother sins against him. He says “Up to seven times?” Seven is a special number for Judaism, a number that signifies completeness.   Really Peter is saying seven times is the limit and I suspect that I am being generous. Jesus surprises Peter by saying “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

What is Jesus really saying about the limits of forgiveness? Maybe He is telling Peter that placing a limit on forgiveness may not feel so wonderful if you are the person needing it. Maybe He is saying to Peter would you only need seven instances of forgiveness? Would you possibly need more? Also, maybe Jesus is saying with the large number [seventy times seven] that we should not even keep track of the number of times we forgive. We should just do it.

So the Bible says we are just to accept whatever is done to us. Not really. There is nothing wrong in telling another “you have sinned against me.”   This is rebuking a sinner and in Matthew 18:15 it says “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.” The idea is that rebuking another is ok but the rebuke should be done in love and it should be about creating peace between you and your transgressor. You should want your brother and sister restored to fellowship with you , the church and God.

The goal should not be to create anger, the goal should not be to prove yourself right and prove that they are wrong. Many find rebuking another so hard because they don’t have the right goal in mind. That right goal is discipline, aimed at restoration.

The offender may still not accept forgiveness and change. The offender may still not listen to a rebuke and change.

What are we to do?

Jesus says that we are still to love that person. We are not to repay evil with evil, nor should we seek revenge. Paul says in Romans 12:20-21 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

This is hard advice because we may be very impatient with a person who continually causes us physical or emotional harm. It can cause us to feel “like we are being used” as we are called on to forgive over and over again.  Many cannot follow the teaching of the Bible due to personal outrage and anger.   Pride can also get in the way as many of us feel that we deserve better treatment. In some instances, Christians don’t have the love in their hearts to deal with people who are offensive. Some people don’t have the words to use in these situations or the empathy necessary to understand other points of view.Bingham Hunter says the reason to follow God’s Word on forgiveness is trifold: we want sinners to be brought to their senses and we want reconciliation, we want to protect the purity of others in the church and finally, we want to show an effective witness to the nonbeliever. We want them to see Jesus in our actions.

Yes when people do us wrong, it is hard to forgive, but the Bible is clear about the need to do it.

It is best to think seriously about the title of Hunter’s chapter on prayer and forgiveness. It is “Forgiving: The Prayer for Other Sinners.”

I want to be able to forgive and I am certainly a sinner.

*author of The God who Hears

We have all been there. Someone has let you down. Someone has hurt you. Someone has done something to you that is very offensive, maybe even criminal.

And you are called on to forgive them.

Who “calls” on you to forgive these people?

God…

The Old Testament has many examples of forgiveness: God’s self-description to Moses [Exodus 34:6-7], the psalmist proclaiming “With you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” [130:4]. Isaiah talks about remembering sins no more in 43:25 and Daniel prayed “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him” [9:9]. The Jewish people knew the meaning of the phrase “To err is human; but to forgive, divine.”

Jesus is “the embodiment” of God’s forgiveness. God sent His Son to earth to serve as a ransom for sinners. The Christian Gospel is essentially a message of forgiveness. The Apostles preached repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. Peter’s message in Acts 10:43 is “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

As Christians we are recipients of forgiveness but Christ asks us to forgive others. The message could not be any more clear than the words Paul wrote: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” [Collosians 3:13].

What should be our motivation to forgive others? We are grateful.

What are we showing the world when we forgive others? We are showing mercy.

What are we saying about ourselves when we forgive others? We are showing others that we are aware of our own shortcomings.

None of us is perfect. We all sin. We are all in need of forgiveness.

That still does not make it easy.   If the offense that is brought against you is very hurtful, it is hard to forgive. I think about the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The church has been in the news lately as the young man who killed nine African-American members [including the pastor] has recently been sentenced for the crime. Several members of the church confronted the young man in jail to tell him they forgave him of the offense.

Some cannot do that.   They hold their forgiveness back, maybe as a sign that they are hurting, maybe as a feeling of power they hold over the offender. Forgiving acknowledges that we are powerless over the situation.   We could not have stopped it from happening.   Forgiving does do one thing that is so good for the offended; it releases the rancor and it becomes a gift that you give yourself.Bingham Hunter even goes so far as to say that “our willingness to forgive others is thus a sign of our genuine conversion” [Hunter, 143].*

Think about what Jesus said about the man who owed a lot of money to his master. Instead of appreciating his gift and extending mercy to others, he goes to a slave and demands money owed him in a much smaller debt and throws the man in prison because he cannot make payment.   In Matthew 18: 32-34, the master calls the servant in and says “You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” He got so angry that he turned the servant over to the jailers until he paid back his debt in full.   Jesus says that this is how the Heavenly Father will treat each of us, unless we learn to forgive our brothers.

Jesus assumes that the forgiven sinner forgive others.

One of his most famous statements in the New Testament says it all: “Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you….for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” [Luke 6: 37-38].

Words to live by, words to heed, words that impel us to forgive…

*from his chapter “Forgiving: The Prayer for Other Sinnners”

On this Valentine’s Day, it is fitting to discuss a chapter entitled “Loving: the Prayer for Other People.” What does love for one another mean?   Does it mean feelings? Does it mean actions? For many, it may mean flowers, candy, jewelry, or a nice meal. Love is one of those words in our language that is hard to “pin down.” It has a lot of positive connotations but it is not definitive or specific.

What does love mean for the practicing Christian? In the Old Testament, it was a part of the religion for those who worshipped the God of Israel. Certainly in the New Testament, Jesus lived a life of love and preached love for others.

It is the most important thing that we can do as followers of Christ.

When Christ died, He not only reconciled us to God, but He also reconciled us one to another. Paul explains in Ephesians 2 that the starting point for reconciliation was the Jew and the Gentile. Christ came to create a “new man” out of these two groups, making peace so hostility would end. The Christian community is supposed to be a community of love and unity.

As Christians, we celebrate the love and unity that is in our community in the Lord’s Supper which is referred to as an agape meal or love feast. This meal serves as a remembrance of Christ’s death and the communion between God and man, as well as man among man. 1^st Corinthians 10: 16-17 examines the words of unity: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

In marriage, Christian husbands and wives should practice love and spiritual equality. 1^st Peter 3:7 states “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the [physically] weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” To fail to love and respect your wife displeases God and breaks Christ’s command.

If we don’t obey God’s commands and love one another, we have no right to claim the title of “Christian.” The words of John are very clear: “If anyone says, ‘I love you’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”   The upshot of this message is this: if you are not expressing love for your Christian brothers and sisters, you have no right to claim that you are a child of God. Prayer which comes from one who is without love is dead.

Love is an amorphous word; it is hard to “put legs on it.” We want to see it, we want to touch it, we want to smell it but it is a feeling that emanates from deep within a person. Maybe that is why we objectify it with the purchase of gifts during Valentine’s Day.   We want to give someone something that signifies that we love them. Florists, candy makers and card manufacturers are happy to supply what we need to communicate our feelings but the purchase of an item seems inadequate to express Christian love in the world.

God wants us to come together in unity and acceptance.   God wants us to share the single loaf. God wants us to respect one another in marriage. He wants us to have prayers for our brothers and sisters who are in need; prayers that signal our true concern for them.

St. Augustine was asked once “What does love look like?” He replied “It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.   It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”

I think most of us would say that Augustine got it right.

His definition of love provides wonderful insight about the Christian pathway to love, a pathway we should all be taking. A pathway that leads from God through us and heads straight to the needs of our brothers and sisters…