Have faith

Just have  faith, and it'll be alright.  

How often do we see or hear some version of this thought?  I've thought it before, and chances are you have too.  Well meaning friends and relatives have probably tried to encourage us to not give up, to have faith.  In the Bible, we read stories of miraculous healings and people brought back from the dead, and faith (Matthew 9:20 & Mark 10:52, for example).

When the threat of the worst comes, we desperately cling to this.  If I can just have enough faith, everything will be alright.  I won't miscarry this baby, my child will survive this disease, my mother's tumor will shrink, we will be protected . . . God won't let bad things happen to us because we have enough faith.

Read that last part again.  Have you thought it before?  That if you can just pray enough, get enough others praying, focus on the protection or the healing without any doubt, that God won't let the worst happen?  Sometimes the worst doesn't happen.  The tornado goes south, the surgery works, the bleeding stops.  We praise God for his blessings and the belief that "faith = good things" is cemented a little deeper.

But what about the times when  the worst does happen?  That even with day and night prayers and fasting, with prayer chains worldwide, with never having doubted or worried that God would heal or protect . . . the miscarriage happened, the baby died, the tumor grew, the abuse wasn't stopped, the hurricane wiped out everything.  What then?  How could God let the bad things happen?

I wonder if we sometimes confuse faith in God with faith in his actions.  We read the Bible stories of faith with a narrow focus on the healing and begin to think that we need to believe in the healing and protection, in the possibility of the impossible act itself.  We read  "For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37), and we focus in on the word nothing, substituting in our circumstance.  

Too many times I have done just that,  having faith that the situation would be resolved  in a way that I wanted - instead of fixing my faith on God himself.  And that knowledge is brought to light when the worst happens, when the impossible thing remained impossible even though I had faith.  At those moments it feels like my world is collapsing, like God has turned away or maybe isn't even there, because He didn't do what I believed he could do.

In the book of Daniel, three young men refused to worship the king despite threat of death by fiery furnace. 

But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.  If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king.  But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” (Daniel 3:15b-18)

I read those words, "But even if He does not rescue us" and realize that I was putting my belief in the rescue instead of the One who can rescue.  Having faith in God, instead of the action, changes everything.  Because when our faith is in God himself, it isn't bound by the limits we've put on it.  When my faith is in the act of healing or rescue or protection,  then the only way that I can see that faith answered is if that specific act happens.  But when my faith is placed in God himself, as it was for these three young men, then that faith is answered by God himself regardless of the way that situation plays out.  Even if the worst does end up happening, my faith can be answered because God is there as Rock, Comforter, and Redeemer.  Instead of feeling like He has turned his back, I can seek refuge in His arms, knowing that  He is bigger than any situation.  That even when the bad things do happen, He not only can be my comfort, but can over time redeem the bad and use it for good.

Where are you putting your faith today, in that situation in your life?  I gently urge you to make sure it is focused on God himself instead of the hoped for outcome, and pray that you will do the same for me.  And dear friend, if you are struggling today because the worst did happen, know that God is still there, He is still good, and His love hasn't changed.  Seek refuge in His everlasting arms ~ they're big enough to hold any emotion you are feeling.  Take your anger, your fear, your disappointment, your sadness to Him.