Faith: Living By Faith

We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

Last year was a long year for me. The tides ebbed. When the tides of life are rising, singing silent praises to God comes easily. It is not difficult to be thankful when God is blessing. For years my tides rose, the circumstances continually improved. Not that hard times stayed out of the picture, but they were manageable hard times—common sense and hard work could solve the problems.

Every rising tide eventually retreats to the sea. Whether it’s the high winds of financial or family disaster, the stormy seas of broken relationships, or the washed away beaches of illness or death—we all live in circumstances that rise and fall like the tides. Inevitably, almost predictably, come the changes.

Time to Take a Vacation

No matter how spiritual we are, we all expend our physical energies on our problems, and we need rest not only for our souls but for our minds and bodies.

So I anticipated our summer vacation to the mountains for months on end. The only prerequisite I had established in my mind for this retreat from reality was that the home we rent have a mountain view.

Our arrival at our vacation escape was the equivalent to the first time I spotted my high school sweetheart holding hands with my best friend. Not only did we not have a mountain view, as near as I could tell, our cubbyhole marked the nadir of the valley.

There was more. The furnishings looked like they had been discarded along a roadside, loaded in a pick-up truck, and carted to this place. This nook was so tiny I couldn’t negotiate our luggage up the stairs. A rancid odor hung like a muggy fog.

I fell into a state of despair, alternating between moody brooding and raging anger. Pure chaos rampaged with my emotions.

Oh, I know the arguments. I used them on myself: Think of all the poor people who can’t even afford a vacation. Think of all the people with large families who live full-time in houses even smaller. Think of the two-thirds of the world who don’t have enough to eat. Think of how quickly your priorities would change if one of the children broke a leg. Think of how ungrateful you are being toward God who, after all, is the final cause of all things.

Somehow these thoughts didn’t help. Besides, nobody did break a leg, and I really needed a vacation. Frankly, I didn’t want the rational man in me to speak. The emotional man had the floor, and he wasn’t about to give it up.

As humorous as situations like these are in hindsight, and we have all had them, it would be helpful to know how to work through them at the time they occur. What is the proper response?

God Causes or Allows

Here is the important point: God is the final cause of all things. He authors every chapter in our lives. He either causes or allows every tide that rises and falls. That is reality. Even Satan operates under the permission of God (see Job 1:8-12).

We think the issue is how to bring the rational man, the emotional man, and the volitional man back onto an even keel—to reconcile the differences within us, usually by making a change. “I will call the rental agent up and demand a different place, or get our money back.” That is not the issue.

The issue is how do we surrender to the Holy Spirit in our circumstances as they exist. That does not seem rational. What seems rational is, “I worked very hard under very difficult circumstances last year and I deserve to have my money’s worth, and I shall not settle for less.” What we most often want to do is to change our circumstances. God doesn’t want to change our circumstances; He wants to change us.

The Emotions, the Mind, or the Will?

Most of us have heard that the Christian is not to live by his feelings. True enough. The emotional man is not to be trusted. But I would propose that it is equally true that the Christian is not to depend upon his knowledge. I speak here not of spiritual knowledge but rational knowledge. The Scriptures commend growth in spiritual knowledge. Paul prayed for the brothers in Colosse, “We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9).

The rational man cannot be trusted any more than the emotional man. Merely look at the terrible rational decisions we all make. Nothing is easier than self-deceit. Our best thinking can end in disaster. The rational man would demand a refund. But what does Jesus want to teach us?

The Christian life is to be lived in the will by faith. “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17). The volitional man decides to live by faith in the Word and not according to the deductions of his intellect. Yes, it is essential to exercise the intellect—most Christians don’t do enough thinking. But when rationality clashes with the Word, leave your suspected genius behind. At the end of the day, faith is more important than rationality, and faith always triumphs over circumstances. Leave room in your thinking for spiritual mystery.

Never quit on faith. Some things just take time. As much as I wanted to surrender our vacation woes to the Spirit, the impulses of the old man within me battled against it. And that is precisely why we didn’t have a mountain view. Oh, for sure the rental agent misled us. But she was the second cause—God was the first cause. God knew where my character was weak, where I wasn’t willing to fully surrender.

It now occurs to me that you may think this is a silly example, that many more serious situations could better illustrate these points. But let me say that the true disasters of life are often easier to come to terms with than the struggles of the daily grind.

The Mystery of Faith

In the final analysis, it is not all that important that you and I understand—see—every detail of our lives, but it is supremely important that by faith we yield control of every detail to the Spirit. A successful Christian life doesn’t need the rationality of sight, but it does need the faith of surrender.

Life doesn’t seem rational sometimes, but a collage of peculiar mysteries. Our circumstances appear difficult. The logical, rational thing would be to make a change. Look a little longer before you make that change. What is God trying to teach you? Have you surrendered your circumstances to Him?

I SURRENDER

Lord, I confess that I burn up my energies trying to establish order in my life. I have tried to live by sight. Help me to make more allowance for spiritual mystery. Help me to live by faith. I have wanted to change my circumstances. Show me how You want to change my character. Amen.