What Am I Doing About It? (Part 3)

Faith

There are two questions about faith I'd like to tackle: What is faith, and how do I get more of it? I found in Vine’s Expository Dictionary that the word for “faith” used in the New Testament has three components:

1. Being fully persuaded of God’s revelation of truth
2. Complete surrender to t hat truth
3. Behavior that is inspired by such surrender

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” The Amplified version puts it this way: “We regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by a conviction or belief in Who God is.”

Having faith starts with believing that something is true, but it’s much more than that. Faith of some kind is always at work in a person’s life. Every person lives by what he or she believes. I may say that I believe something, but do I really live like I believe it?

Many volumes have been written about faith. Every believer I know would like to have more of it. The Bible tells us how we get faith: Romans 12:3 says that God has allotted to each person a measure of faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So we get faith from God. He gives us faith to begin with, and we can add to it, or make it grow, by taking in more and more of His word. How does this happen?

In The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer has one of the best explanations of faith I have seen, in his chapter called, “The Gaze of the Soul.” He reminds us of the story of the Israelites in Numbers 21, when they had disobeyed God and fiery serpents were sent among them. They were being bitten and they were dying. God had Moses make a serpent of brass and lift it up high on a pole. And the Lord said to Moses, "And it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live." In the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

Tozer points out that from the comparison of these two Scriptures, Jesus showed us that believing and looking are interchangeable terms. So believing on God, or having faith in God, would be the same thing as looking on God. See how this relates to Hebrews 12:1, which instructs us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.”

The following is a quote from the chapter I mentioned in Tozer's book:

Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, “I will set my throne above the throne of God.” Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line.

So the big deal is not MY FAITH; the big deal is THE ONE in Whom I put my faith. It’s about getting my focus right. The Word of God and His Holy Spirit working in me help me to increase in faith. Next time let’s look a bit at how this happens.