Waiting for More Faith
That faith is essential to spiritual life, no one can doubt who reads intelligently the Old Testament or the New. Abraham had faith, and that faith was reckoned to him for righteousness, — for a right state before God. Inspired prophets tell us that the just, the righteous, are to live by their faith, by their restful trust in God. Hardly any single injunction is more frequently expressed by the Saviour of men, to those who desire his help, than the command to “have faith in God,” It is their faith that Jesus insists on. It is on their faith that his help depends. It is by means of their faith that they are saved. So clearly and positively is this truth expressed in the Bible that those who would be guided by the precepts of that Book are ever ready to give prominence to the duty of faith as their ground of hope.
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Yet a clear idea of what faith is, and of what it is to have faith, is anything but common among Bible readers and seekers of peace and rest. Of course, systematic theology has done much to mislead and confuse those who would know and have right ideas of God’s teachings. Thus theologians have told us that there are different kinds of faith, — that there is intellectual faith, and formal faith, and lifeless faith, and, again, that there is saving faith. This leads the anxious to wonder what are the distinctive characteristics of that kind of faith of which prophet and apostle had so much to say, and on which Jesus seemed to pivot his power to help life-seekers.
Faith is not a possession or attainment, the having of which enables a man to be strong, and to have knowledge, and to work wonders in his sphere. Faith is an attitude of being toward God, a condition of mind and spirit that makes one ready to accept as sure what God has promised, and what God has said he will do. President maitind for mote jfaitb
Mark Hopkins once said simply and wisely: “There is no conflict between faith and reason. Faith is the beHeving that God will do as he has promised. That certainly is not unreasonable.” Again, good Dr. Bushnell said: “Faith is not a mysterious possession, it is a simple act. Faith is that act by which one person, a sinner, commits himself to another person, a Saviour.”
It is indeed strange that so many perplexed doubters have worried for years over the question whether they had enough faith, or whether the faith they had was of the right sort. While faith, true faith, is so reasonable and so simple, one who has for years had much to do with perplexed doubters has no hesitation in saying that no other cause of doubt has been so common or so persistent, among those who have sought his help, as the lack, or the quality, or the relative measure, of faith. About the necessity of faith most are agreed. About the possession of faith there is much doubt.
One who had been for years an active member of a prominent church, and who was at that very time a Sunday-school teacher, came to me as one who, as he thought, gave evidence of faith, while he bemoaned his own lack of it. To me he said longingly:
“I wish I had your faith, my friend.”
“What do you want of my faith?” was the reply. “You’d better have your own faith. You’ve nothing more to do with my faith than with my pocket-book. Let every man have his own faith.”
“Then I’ll say I wish I had more faith, — more faith of my own.”
“You have got more faith now than you are willing to use. What would you do with any more? If you’ve faith as big as a grain of mustard-seed, and will use it aright, you can uproot big trees and mighty mountains, and do other great things. Your difficulty is not in being without enough faith, but in being unwilling to use what faith you have. If you
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believe one thing that Jesus promises you, and are ready to do accordingly, you are using a little of your faith. Then you are ready to have and to use more faith. Having faith is of no use except as you use it.”
Encouraged to take this view of faith and of truth, this doubter came to exercise faith, and his faith grew accordingly. Finally his faith actually evidenced itself to the ends of the earth, — while he was an active foreign missionary, — and he rejoiced in his faith, or in the Saviour on whom it rested, and others were thereby benefited.
For years a seeker after truth and light suffered in doubt because she thought she had not faith enough, or that the faith she had was not of the right sort. She was constant in prayer and longing. She was ready to do every duty which she knew. She studied the Bible for counsel and comfort. She got help at many points, but at other points she was met by the injunction that even in seeking help from God she must ask in unwavering faith, and that re-IHow to Deal with Doubts
quirement seemed a barrier to her. In telling of her troubles to one of whom she sought counsel, she stated the case in this way:
“When I found the invitation in James I: 5, I thought I was helped: * If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ That was encouraging. The next verses, however, staggered me: * But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.’ I’m afraid I’m a double-minded person. My faith sometimes wavers. I wish I could have a faith where there’d never be a doubt.”
“Do you mean that you sometimes think that Christ is to be trusted, and at other times you do not think that he is to be depended on?” That was the question
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put to the doubter by the one whose counsel she sought.
“No, I never have any doubt about Christ. I’m only speaking about my faith in Christ. I don’t always have the same feeling of faith in Christ.”
“Then it is not a matter of your faith, but of your personal feeling, that troubles you. Your faith depends on what Christ is, and what you understand him to be. Your feeling on the subject may depend on any one of a dozen things. Sometimes a walk in the fresh air will change your feelings. Sometimes a little soda-mint or spirits of ammonia will set things straight inside.”
And she was thus shown to be another of the many who are needlessly in doubt because they confound their feelings about faith with faith itself Faith is indeed important, but one’s feeHngs about faith are of no importance.
Another doubter about his faith I visited at a time when the doubter was in bereave*
IKow to 2)cal with 2)oubtsment, and when he regretted that he could not count himself a child of God. He was a man upright in his personal life, a lover of the Bible, a constant church attendant. He was in the habit of personal prayer, but he did not think it would be right for him, without faith, to confess Christ as his Saviour. I sought to induce him to evidence faith in confessing Christ before men.
“I’d like to,” he said, “but I have no faith in Christ.”
“Why don’t you have faith?” asked his friend.
“Because it is not in my power to have faith.”
“Do you believe that Christ is worthy of being loved and obeyed?”
“Yes, indeed I do.”
“Then why do you not* love and obey him?”
“I do love him, and I obey him in everything except when he tells me to have faith. In that one thing I am powerless.”
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“Let us see about that,” I said. “Suppose that this very night you were to know there was to be a struggle between the friends and the enemies of Jesus, and you were told that those who wanted to be true to him must line up on the other side of the street, while those who were against Jesus, or who were in doubt about their position, could stay where they were; what would you do?”
“I’d go over on the other side of the street, where his supporters lined up.”
“Would you do this if it would cost you your life, and when you might risk your soul?”
“Of course I would,” he said.
“That is what Jesus counts faith,” said his friend, “and standing up to confess Christ before men is lining up with his followers on his side of the way.”
And on the next occasion when new members were received into our home church, I rejoiced to see the long-time doubter stand up in line with those who
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were ready to declare their trust in Christ as their Saviour. How many there are who have doubt about their faith when they have no doubt about their Saviour, and who are ready to show this, at any risk, in a testing time!