As Christians we are taught to and learn to place our trust
and faith in Christ alone for our salvation.
The Bible is clear, there is no other name under heaven by which we must
saved (Acts 4:12). I have found the
practice of that truth extends far beyond the reaches of the need for salvation
and into the minutia of our everyday needs.
Recently I found myself in a situation in which I was
praying fervently for God to provide my need.
I prayed believing God is able to do exceedingly above all I can ask or
think (Eph. 3:20). I kept praying,
“Lord, help me to trust in you”.
Multiple times a day, each time the fear or anxiety appeared, I turned
it into a prayer.
Quickly I saw where I thought God was leading and built a picture
around the dots I could see. Only my
picture was connected by dots that were not given to me. I have faith God can do anything, only I
turned it into faith he would do the “anything” I was hoping he would do.
When the picture dissolved and I was left standing on the
same first dot, I began to wonder what happened. In his graciousness God showed me I had moved
the object of my faith. I said and I
believed I had faith in him. In actuality,
I had faith in the solution I chose - the person I thought would be helping me,
the situation I thought would be resolved, the next step I thought I would
take, the miracle I thought would happen.
Faith in anything other than God himself is a faith in the
unworthy.
I placed myself in a precarious position when I changed the
object of my faith from the one who offers himself as the culmination of all
hope to the hope of receiving the gifts he is able to offer. Do I want God or the things he can give me? Am I the older son (Luke 15:11-32) waiting
for the payoff of a life of hard work or am I spending time with the father
because time with the father is the payoff?
I often misinterpret Matt. 17:20 talking about having faith
to move mountains as having faith the mountains would be moved. There
is a subtle yet very tragic nuance to the difference. I turn faith into a wish, a first choice
pleading that if I persist God will give me what I want. I should be praying for what is placed on my
heart, but I should be praying trusting if the first choice turns into the
seventh choice, God’s will is being accomplished and he is as faithful as he
ever was and I can continue to trust him even though my flesh says he has no
idea what he is doing.
God is more interested in moving the internal mountains of stubbornness,
pride, anxiety, unbelief, doubt, fear, and anger, than the obstacles I’m
pointing out to him, as though he is unaware.
Once I am broken and see the futility of putting my trust in anything
other than the I AM, I can be rebuilt into who I was made to be, a person whose
hope and faith rest in the only one worthy of it. The object of my faith makes all the
difference.
