Faith in Hard Times
*This was originally sent out to the mailing list on 10/14/06*
Hi there,
I wanted to take a minute to write about something that has been on my heart for quite a long time: faith. Or more precisely, having faith when things don’t seem to make any sense. Having faith when it seems like God is not being faithful AT ALL. I was reading in my Bible yesterday, and was grabbed by these verses: “Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him” (John 12:15-16).
It then occurred to me that Jesus’ disciples had to have a lot of faith to believe who Jesus was, even though they could see Him face to face, and witnessed His miracles. At the time, things DID NOT make sense for them, and it was not perfectly clear whether all the prophecies about Him were true. These sorts of things happen a lot in my own life too, and things feel like they are not going according to God’s plan, or that somehow God has forgotten about me.
And in Jesus’ time, there were a lot of “knots” that came up to prevent many of the people from having a smooth and easy path to faith. I just want to name of a few that stood out for me, because I think it will help us to have faith in God in our everyday lives, especially when it feels like things are not turning out the way they should.
“The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?” (John 6:41-42).
Was Jesus born of God, or was He just a regular person like everybody else? To a lot of the people, they just thought that Joseph was Jesus’ father. Either the story of Mary’s virgin birth was not widely known, or just not believed. This made it very hard for people to believe that Jesus really was the messiah.
“Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him” (John 7:41-43).
It seemed like Jesus was NOT fulfilling the scriptures, because everyone thought that Jesus came from Galilee. In the Old Testament, (Micah 5:2), it says that the Christ will be from Bethlehem, and NOT Galilee. But what many of them perhaps didn’t know, was that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Joseph, Mary and Jesus fled into Egpyt while Jesus was very young, and when He returned to Israel, His family settled down in Galilee. (See Matthew chapter 2.) So, everyone thought that Jesus was from Galilee, even though He was born in Bethlehem. This must have been a major stumbling block to the faith of a lot of the people, especially those who were trying to go “by the book” to find who Jesus was.
And lastly, it also said in the scriptures that before Jesus would come, God would send back Elijah the prophet to His people. (See Malachi 4:5-6) This man turned out to be John the Baptist, yet perhaps even John himself didn’t know that that was who he was: “And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No” (John 1:19-21). He was wrong! He was that prophet Elijah (also spelled ‘Elias’) as God had told his parents in Luke 1:17: ” And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias…
This thing – John being Elijah – was very hard for the people to understand or believe. “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come” (Matthew 11:13-14). I sort of view this phrase “ if you will receive it” as almost saying: “if you can possibly bear to believe this truth…” It was not what the people were expecting, especially since John himself denied that he was the one to fulfill this prophecy. Jesus’ disciples even questioned Him directly on this: “And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist” (John 17:10-13).
I have often wondered why God let all of these doubts to prevail while Jesus was on Earth. (Of course, in hindsight, it is all very clear to us today, with the Bible having it all laid out in front of us.) I think one of the reasons for leaving things a bit open-ended was that God wanted faith.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” -Hebrews 11:6
Problems, troubles, and hardships, while they are unfolding, do not always have a clear answer. Afterward, things will make sense, (if not in this life, than at least in heaven), but while things are happening in the here and now, it can be very tough.
God wants us to have faith in the sunrise, even on the moonless night; even on the darkest of nights, when not even the reflection of the sun may be seen upon the moon; even on the longest of winters, when there is not a blade of green grass to be seen anywhere on the ground. The night does not last forever, and the winter does not endure indefinitely, but at times, days seem like years, and doubts arise, and that is perhaps the very definition of a trial: when all hope, all bearings, and all landmarks seem to be lost, and you have only the things that you can remember about God. God was good. He is good… but I can’t see it now.
It is at this point, when all is black, that souls are tested and hearts are tried — and God’s rewards can be won. It is a trial of faith. “Faith is… the evidence of things not seen ” (Hebrews 11:1). Of course we cannot see the way, else it wouldn’t be faith. Of course we can’t see the ending, or answer the “whys” or the “hows,” but God wants it that way, or else it wouldn’t be faith. Or else it would be no hardship, and there would be no growth… nor rewards.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” -1 Peter 4:12-13
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