Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the seventh installment in my series of posts about the fruit of the Spirit.

In a sermon entitled “The Right Kind of Faith,” theologian D. L. Moody told the following story: “I wanted to teach my little boy what faith was some time ago, and so I put him on a table. He was a little fellow two years old. I stood back three or four feet, and said, ‘Willie, jump.’ The little fellow said, ‘Pa, I’se afraid.’ I said, ‘Willie, I will catch you; just look right at me, and jump’; and the little fellow got all ready to jump, and then looked down again, and says, ‘I’se afraid.’ ‘Willie, didn’t I tell you I would catch you? Will Pa deceive you? Now, Willie, look me right in the eye, and jump, and I will catch you’; and the little fellow got all ready the third time to jump, but he looked on the floor, and said, ‘I’se afraid.’ ‘Didn’t I tell you I would catch you?’ ‘Yes.’ At last I said, ‘Willie, don’t take your eyes off me,’ and I held the little fellow’s eyes, and I said, ‘Now jump; don’t look at the floor’; and he leaped into my arms. Then he said to me, ‘Let me jump again.’ I put him back, and, the moment he got on the table he jumped, and after that, when he was on the table, and I was standing five or six feet away, I heard him cry, ‘Pa, I’se coming,’ and had just time to rush and catch him. He seemed to put too much confidence in me. But you cannot put too much confidence in God.”

On what foundation is such confidence built? Why should Willie trust his father to catch him? With a reliance the world calls “blind faith,” I believe in a God I don’t literally see. And on top of that, I believe that this great, omnipotent God actually loves me as His child, created me for a purpose, and will carry me safely through every battle.

Faith in God is more than belief in His existence; it is confidence in His provision. It is more than seeing that your Father stands before you; it is knowing He will catch you when you fall. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” What compels this absolute faith? The only way we can trust God more than ourselves is if our relationship with Him has demonstrated His trustworthiness. This kind of faithfulness is solely God-given; we can’t create it on our own. The word Paul uses in Galatians 5 which we translate to “faithfulness” is the Greek noun “pistis.” It means to persuade or be persuaded. Faith is the result of God’s work in our lives; we are convinced of His character by the evidence of His goodness. We believe in His love because it holds us together. We believe in His power because we see it work miracles. We believe in His resurrection because it has made us new.

For many of us, Christianity has been a way of life for longer than we can remember. Church, the Bible, prayers, and Sunday hymns have built the hub of our background—and that is an amazing foundation to have. It is certainly wonderful to gain a heritage of faith from our family, but it is not enough to live off the leftovers of someone else’s faithfulness. The Lord expects us to own our faith and know our Savior personally. There are no “plus-ones” in heaven. All God’s children have a reservation.

It is when we enter the valleys of life that we know the quality of our faith. Faithfulness is refined by fire and when we are surrendered completely to our Father, we learn to trust and obey though we don’t understand. What strengthens us to remain faithful during these times? It can only be the sight of His great faithfulness to us which empowers us to never deny Him. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). This is our hope and our confidence—He will never leave us nor forsake us. His grace is amazing; His love is unfailing. And whether we are true to Him or not, His character never changes. As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” How amazing it is that though I am prone to failure and may doubt His goodness, He will never prove false. The thought of His great faithfulness motivates me to always be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and to always deny myself but never Him. I will end with lyrics from one of my favorite songs: “Yet Not I but through Christ in Me” by CityAlight. I pray your spirit is strengthened by our Father’s faithfulness.

The night is dark but I am not forsaken,

For by my side, the Savior He will stay.

I labor on in weakness and rejoicing,

For in my need, His power is displayed.