on faith

E.R. McManus on Faith

A casual listener to Christian teaching over the airwaves would
conclude the solution to every problem is to have more faith. If you
have a problem, all you have to do is believe. If you can't overcome
the problem, you're just not believing big enough. The metaphor of the
mustard seed is thrown into this mix of faith talk. We are told that
Jesus said all we need was faith the size of a mustard seed and we
could speak to the mountain, "Be removed," and it would be cast into
the sea. Jesus' words are interpreted to mean that what we have is a
faith problem-- we just dont believe enough. This spiritual journey
becomes an endless cycle of trying to muster up more belief, bigger
faith. But Jesus is pointing us to the very opposite conclusion. He's
not saying we need to have more faith; He's actually telling us we
just need to have some. It's not about making your faith bigger. All
you need is mustard seed-sized faith. The implication is any less is
none at all. Jesus was not calling us to work up our faith. He was
calling us simply to put our faith in God. It is not our faith in an
event that is critical, but our faith in God himself. It is not about
believing in a miracle or believing for a miracle; it is about an
unshakable confidence in the character of God.



In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus a
question: "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect
someone else?" Jesus sent back this response: "Go back and report to
John what you see and here: The blind receive sight, the lame walk,
those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does
not fall away on account of me" (11:3-6). It is curious that John, who
was the cousin of Jesus, was doubting who Jesus was. If anyone should
have been sure, it was John. The Bible tells us he leaped in his
mother Elizabeth's womb when she was in the presence of Mary, who was
pregnant with Jesus. Interesting that while in the womb, John was
convinced Jesus was the one but was confused about it later.

On another occasion, John saw Jesus walking in a crowd and boldly
declared, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!" (John 1:29). Even in the midst of a crowd, John knew who He
was. While John was baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus came to him asking
to be baptized, and John insisted that it was Jesus who should be
baptizing him (Matt 3:14). Once again John had absolute clarity that
Jesus was the one. But when John acquiesced and baptized Jesus, John
saw the heavens open, witnessed the Spirit of God descending on Jesus
like a dove and heard a voice from heaven declaring, "This is my Son,
whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (vv 16-17).

In this situation, like the rest, John didn't pause and ask, "Now, I
was wondering, are you the One that we are waiting for or should we
look for another?" There is only one reason John asked this question
when he did. He was in prison, and Herod was about to have him
beheaded. If you are about to lose your head over God, you want to
make sure He's the right one. Yet even in this crisis, John's doubts
came as a result of Jesus' inactivity on his behalf. He was the one
preparing the way for Christ. While everyone else wondered who He was,
John was declaring who He was. Yet this moment was different. His life
was at stake. It was becoming clear to John that Jesus would not
intervene on his behalf.

What John needed was not the faith to be released from prison, but the
faithfulness to see God's mission for him fulfilled. Jesus' response
was one of astonishing credentials-- The blind were made to see, the
lame were made to walk, lepers were cured, the deaf could hear, and
even the dead were raised. What's more, the good news was proclaimed
to the poor. All this John already knew. Jesus' resume brought no
surprised to John except for His final statement, "Blessed is the man
who does not fall away on account of me."

This is an odd saying at the end of such a miraculous description.
Why would anyone be tempted to fall away from a God through which
there was so much miraculous intervention? Because though He is the
God who can do all that was described, He is also the God who calls
you to the highest level of sacrifice. There are moments when our
greatest act of faith is to remain faithful. There will be times when
no level of faith will change our circumstance. Faith is not always a
way out of a crisis. In fact I am convinced it rarely is. Faith gives
us the strength and confidence to see every challenge and crisis
through the end. There is a resilience that erupts out of faithfulness
where you just won't quit! You learn to never give up. Faith is a
confidence in God that results in faithfulness. That faithfulness
gives us the power to perservere. In the midst of our perserverance,
we find the wisdom of God to help us understand and see our way
through. When Jesus calls us to be faithful and even to endure great
things, we are blessed when we do not fall away from Him but continue
to follow closely at His side.

Taken from Uprising