The subject of faith in Christianity has different perspectives, some of which I have discussed on this site, such as Saving Faith, the Power of Faith, and the act of Christian Responsibility through Faith. This article focuses on the trust aspect of faith, especially as it relates to prayer and fellowship with God.
Faith is the bridge by which we relate to God. It enables humans to connect to our spiritual Father. Faith is one of the core Christian beliefs and practices. The success and failure of a Christian life depends on faith. Every believer claims to have some level of faith in one way or the other. The question, however, is how do we exercise our faith in God for a successful Christian life? The question is one of the right understandings of what the Bible teaches on faith and the proper application for results.
One of the ways faith has been subtly viewed lately in the church is in the aspect of visualizing the spiritual realm and the things we hope for. The human ability of Visualization and imagination are gifts of God to enhance human life but this should not be mistaken with faith. Christian faith does not rest on human speculation but on the Bible. When we mistake our imaginations for faith, we make ourselves vulnerable to the deceptive schemes of Satan. The other danger in mistaken visualization with faith is that it can degenerate into false religious practices such as abstract projection and Eastern religious practices such as Yoga etc.
The incident of Jacob’s wrestle with God in Genesis 32:22-29 has been used by some Christians to define faith. They consider straining the mind through imagination to receive answers to prayer the same with Jacob’s struggle with God through the night for blessings. This incident cannot be compared to the Christian faith. A lot can be speculated on this incident, as much of it abounds, but the fact is that no one can give a full explanation of this incident; some parts of the story remain a mystery. For instance, the scripture simply says that a man wrestles with Jacob till daybreak. The scripture is quite as to the reason why the man wrestled with Jacob, and the scripture did not explain how the man wrestled with him. Wrestling could be mental and physical, although depiction could be made that since the scripture says that He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, it could have been a physical struggle. But again, only God and Jacob can, in finality, tell what kind of wrestling it was. And God’s statement that Jacob has struggled with God and humans and has overcome is a Big mystery! Who can fight God, not to even talk of overcoming Him? Jacob fought God out of ignorance of who he was fighting; if he knew, he wouldn’t have imagined doing that!
To View faith from this perspective is to have a speculative view of faith. The struggle view of faith presupposes that God is unwilling to meet our needs and so we have to force Him by our faith. This makes faith the object of our belief and God the subject that has to comply with the force of faith. Ultimately, man becomes the center of the entire faith process; man uses faith to force or get from God what he (man) wants. God here becomes a subject to man and faith. This is the kind of faith the Word of Faith movement teaches. This is erroneous to the Christian kind of faith taught by the Bible. It is a kind of faith that exalts man over God. When God does not respond as we expect, we assume so many things and may even give up on God. Such kind of practice of faith sets us up for so many fallacies.
The kind of faith taught by the Bible demands patience on the part of man. Patience and faith are closely connected. The exercise of faith does not imply God’s unwillingness to respond. But waiting patiently is the essence of faith. Through patient waiting, we reveal our confidence in God and develop a stable and firm godly character, which is the ultimate result of Christian faith. Faith then has to do with simply laying our petitions before God and then letting Him respond how and when He wants to. Faith is to be at rest after we have petitioned God depending on the promise of His word. The ability to be at rest after we have petitioned God is the essence of the Christian faith. Faith makes prayer a relief of burden; it is the courage to leave it there at the altar of God through prayer.
Instances of Christian faith in the Bible are: When the Israelites looked behind them and saw Pharaoh, his army and chariot were chasing hard to overrun them, and before them was the Red Sea; they needed faith in such a fixed situation. Thus, Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again (Exodus 14:13). The barren Annah exercised faith when she stopped being troubled after she petitioned God for a child at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:9-20). In the case of the young Jewish men in Babylon, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, they had such faith they could stand for the name of God to the point of being thrown in the furnace of fire even if God would not come to their rescue divinely.
Therefore, it is not faith that makes us fret for a quick and immediate response from God but lack of it. Fretting for God’s response to our petition tends to keep us in the circle of fear, anxiety, and doubt that always results in unanswered prayer and immature spirituality. True faith, on the other hand, calmly rests in God through prayer, even in the midst of trials knowing that God is in absolute control. The power of faith does not lie in the strength of the heart to force or move God to respond to our prayer but in the inner muscles to rest in God even in the midst of danger while waiting for God’s response.