To Encourage You

Mark 11:22 “And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God.’”

Many years ago, one of my office coworkers was talking about a subject (I don’t recall what the subject was) and he made this statement: “You have to have faith.”  Well, because I knew that this person was not a Christian, I asked him this question: “Faith in what?”  And you know what?  He never gave me an answer. 

As I was thinking and praying about the issue of faith this morning, a thought occurred to me about how the faith that the Bible talks about is such a personal thing.  Without exception, when the Bible talks about faith, it is talking about faith in God.  One of the things that has helped me understand “faith” over the years is that in the Old Testament the Hebrew word that means faith is usually translated “trust.”  For example, in Proverbs 3:5-6 we are told, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”  Notice how it says that we are to trust in the Lord. It’s the same idea that Jesus expressed in the verse above when He said “Have faith in God.”  Again, the faith that the Bible talks about is a very personal thing. It involves the strength of the personal relationship we have with the God of the universe. 

To better understand this, what if your best friend was to say to you, “I’ll meet you at noon at Wal Mart,” and your reply was, “I don’t believe you”?  You would be telling your friend that you don’t trust his or her word, and it would be a smack in their face. 

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus gives us what has come to be called, “the parable of the talents.” In this parable, Jesus tells a story of a man who went on a journey, but before he went, he entrusted his property to them.  He gave one of them five talents (a quantity of money), He gave another two talents, and to another He gave one talent, “according to their ability.”  Then we are told that the servant with five talents put it to work and earned five talents more. The servant with two talents did likewise and earned two talents more.  The master’s reply to them was this: “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” But the one who had been given one talent said this when his master came: “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” In essence, what he was saying to the master was “I was afraid of you.  You’re a hard man that demanded too much of me. You are not be trusted.”  And the master’s reply? “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

Sobering words about this very serious subject, this matter of trust.  You see, every time we fail to take the Word of God seriously, every time we doubt what God’s Word says, every time our actions are dictated by something other than faith in God, we are saying to the One Who has met our needs every day of our life, the only One in the entire universe Who is utterly and completely trustworthy, the One Who loved us with the greatest love that anyone ever loved anyone when He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, “I don’t trust you.”  It’s nothing more than a slap in His face. It’s unbelief and a lack of faith that is totally and completely unjustifiable and for which we will answer to Him in the end. 

But, incredibly, this lack of faith can be forgiven, no matter the track record of unbelief we have left.  But do we believe this? Will we trust Him to do as He promised when He told us, “If (you) confess (your) sins, (I am) faithful and just to forgive (you your) sins and to cleanse (you) from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)? And as we face any difficult situation in life, will we have faith in God?  Will we trust what He has said in His Word, or will we do something else. 

As my coworker said to me so many years ago “You have to have faith.”  But faith in what? Rather, faith in Whom?  For you see, faith is a very personal thing that says everything about our true relationship to the God of the universe.  Will you and I trust what He has said?  And will we act upon it?  These are questions we must give an answer for when we stand before Him in the end.  May we live so that we can say at that time, “Yes, I trusted You.  I did have faith in God like you said.”