FAITH IS THE ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE OF FOCUSING ON AN OBJECT. BIBLICAL FAITH IS THAT SAME ACTIVITY WITH GOD’S WORD AS THE OBJECT RESULTING IN TRUST AND RELIANCE (FAITH) IN, AND ON, GOD.
The initial step of faith – Biblical faith – must, of necessity, be a communication. It is always a ‘revelation’. While the written ‘Word’ of God is declarative, definitive and eternal it does not embed itself into our belief system absent His Holy Spirit revealing His Word as truth to our spirit. Our reception of this ‘revelation’ from God manifests itself first in grabbing our attention.
It is at this point we must realize faith’s most basic elements: ONE – our FOCUS;
TWO – the OBJECT of our focus; and
THREE – the obedient EXPRESSION of our faith.
The reality of faith is that we feed our belief system by this exercise we recognize as ‘focus’. But we must consider the source of the ‘pollution’ in our belief system. We can find a huge hint in Paul’s letter to the Roman Church: 12:1-2 from the Classic Amplified Version of the Bible:
“ I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].”
You will notice Paul makes an appeal to the Church in Rome to make of themselves a sacrifice of their lives and that he considers such an offering to be wholly reasonable. He also considers this lifestyle to be the epitome of ‘intelligent worship’. And for this sacrificial lifestyle to commence and be maintained it is absolutely necessary to allow God’s Word to be confrontational with our belief system. There must occur a ‘renewing of the mind’ for this to be an ongoing reality in our lives.
Consider all the influences that has converged into the development of the things you believe – as well as the things you and I profess to believe. And if you wish to assess what you truly believe against what you profess to believe begin to observe how you react to the varied stimuli encountered in life. Go back in your memory and recall your reaction when someone close to you betrayed you. Allow the emotions of being on the receiving end of ridicule or shame at the hands of someone you trusted – or someone whose authority you had to recognize. You may easily subscribe to Jesus’ teaching about turning the other cheek until it is your turn to be slapped. We might easily subscribe to the exhortation and invitation of the prophet Malachi to ‘prove Me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts….’ when our earnings were only $100.00 and all we needed to ‘prove Him’ with was $10.00. But when the windfall comes and that 10% amounts to thousands of dollars it becomes a test of faith. What we DO in such times exposes our belief system. What we do, how we react, our immediate responses are those things that we really believe is the right course of action. In times of our failure, we may well ask ourselves ‘WHAT HAPPENED?!?!’
This is a great place to start using our powers of observation to consider those reactions to the people, the attitudes and aptitudes brought into our focus. Here is the truth about faith: THE OBJECT of our focus will result in where we place our faith. If we focused on an offense and grit our teeth and do the very best we can to get through that offensive period of life, then gritting our teeth and doing our very best becomes our default response to similar situations that occur. Our determination and perseverance become our coping mechanisms. IF ON THE OTHER HAND we find ourselves in a really tight spot and in fear and trembling cast our cares on God and depend on HIM and HIS resources to come to our aid AND to be developed in us to persevere in our trust in Him to manifest in victory we shall have RENEWED our mind from old ways of ‘coping’ with life’s challenges. What makes the difference? The difference is we discipline our attention to tend to God’s Word. When we do, we will have replaced our faith in objects that fail us to the ultimate object WHO never fails us.
There is one more life function we must monitor so that we may diagnose the validity of our progress – the reality of renewal. Listen to what you SAY about what challenges you and your well-being. Does your speech align with what you are hearing the Word of God say? Does it expose your/my attention on HIM and HIS WORD or is it exposing an old, corrupt belief that needs renewing? In just short order we will begin to hear what our mind wants to speak and if we have been attentive to God’s Word, we will overrule any corrupt beliefs and communications we receive from our ‘flesh’ or ‘the world’ or ‘the devil’. FOCUS on His Word and His indwelling presence. That will lead us to faith that sustains us.