If you have been a Christian for any time you have probably met them. They are everywhere. They are these "super-Christians" for whom everything seems to go just as they want, or as they planned. And while maybe it doesn't (and of course it doesn't) they at least convince us that more faith is the key to our life's journey, even as theirs has been changed by such faith. They use phrases like, "Well you need to believe more," and "Put all your faith in God," especially to encourage us on through our trying seasons. They ultimately cause us to think that there is quite a bit less faith in us such that God will not answer us until our faith rises to a higher level. While I believe there can be some truth to that, I do not think we understand faith rightly if that is all we can say to people.
It has become clearer that God delights in faith. Indeed without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6). But nowhere can I find the perfect example of another human, just like you and me, who actually conjured up enough faith such to get whatever they wanted. There comes a point at which faith, even in the largest, most perfect portions is not what God wants.
Consider a people promised by God to inherit a land, that God would ultimately give them and deliver them safely unto, finally arriving on the brink of that land. Well of course this was the case for the Israelites, even as Joshua took command following the death of Moses. What if just a day before going into this promised land, after receiving the promise of God to go with them, never forsake them, obliterate any person or army that tried to stand against them, Joshua said, "Well in that case let's go back to Egypt"? Assume Joshua had this perfect, full faith in God. No matter how much faith Joshua might boast it would never happen. God would not be in such a plan. I might argue that this is the case with so many of us. We are believing God for something that He has never designed to happen. No matter the measure of our faith we should not expect it. This of course can be hard to decipher. Joshua banked on a promise. Few of us can be certain that our faith rests on such a promise. This is a part of what we need to wrestle with as regards our unanswered prayers.
So one says, "Well just believe God to bring your healing today...your financial need right now...your new job this week..." Again, I do believe we do well to believe, and ask so boldly, but this is where the shift has begun to happen in my mind. God is delighted in our faith, for sure. But what if He doesn't answer us? Do we still believe? That is the truer measure of our faith...does it persevere? So what if God's plan to heal our ailing body actually took the span of 3 years and not one day? What if in that 3 years we see doctors, nurses, therapists and through that many more lives are changed by this glorious gospel news that we share? My point is God is ever doing things like this, not because we lack faith for the healing, but because His greater purposes and plans which may (or may not) involve our healing are on display.
Too, He is working on us. It is easy to forget this matter because we are so results driven. We long to see the result of our faith to be the healing (in this instance). But what if the purpose of our healing were ultimately to bring us more faith? And since God delights in faith wouldn't it be like Him even more often not to answer us so immediately? And even if we have faith to see Him provide $5000 we need to get out of debt, wouldn't it require the same amount of faith, or more to see Him provide that over time? Maybe God delights to use something miraculous to bring that $5000 in a moment. But might it not too make more sense that God may bring the $5000 through working a part-time job (where lives are intersected), sacrificial giving of 10 other people, as well as some other unexpected means? All of this would be miraculous.
So hear me on this: faith doesn't assure us of what we want, when we want it, or how we want it. Faith rather is understanding that God will provide what He wants for us, when He wants it, and in the manner He wants to bring it. There is so much more going on with His greater purposes and plans than our small, immediate, often selfishly motivated prayers would desire. And in this we learn really what faith is and what big, full, perfected faith really is.
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