The Object Of Faith

The Object of Faith

Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” Matthew 14:27

FIXING OUR MENTAL GAZE ON GOD is a challenge for some of us. We know how to think about him, but many of those thoughts are speculative and hazy, maybe even a product of our own imaginations. We go to Scripture to find wonderful details and specific examples of God’s presence, but until that presence becomes real in our own lives, we are engaging more in a theology than a gaze of the soul. And when our thoughts about God are just thoughts, our fears find ways of persisting. It’s only when we really engage with God—when we realize he is in the room—that the conversation becomes real and our fears begin to subside.

That’s the trajectory of Jesus’ brief words when he walked toward his disciples on the water in the midst of heavy winds and waves. “Don’t be afraid. . . . Take courage. I am here!” His presence is the key to ridding ourselves of fear and anxiety—and also regret, bitterness, guilt, shame, and every other distorted thought we have. When we’re really in the presence of the one who is truth, we begin to think truth. And the truth is that we have nothing to fear. He is watching over our lives with care and compassion.

This is what the Incarnation is all about. A messianic prophecy told us of Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)—not a distant God, not merely a conceptual or theoretical God, but the real God, here and now with us wherever we are. In the grand, lifelong project of feeding our faith and starving everything that comes against it, this is ground zero, the front line, the key to victory. We don’t gaze into the distant sky to encounter this God; we invite him in and let his presence cover us, fill us, and move us. We welcome him into the midst of our winds and waves, and he brings peace with him. We don’t have to muster up trust in him. We simply trust. And when we do, we find courage rising up within us, our sense of his presence growing stronger, and our prayers of faith touching his heart.

It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.