Faith, Hope, The Bridge, Misuderstanding and then I got it...

We've just started working through a small group study by Andy Stanley called Faith, Hope and Luck.  Last night Andy was defining faith and it kind of made me hit a "wobbly" and really mess with my head.

When it comes to explaining what faith is most Christians quote Hebrews 11.1 "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." My basic understanding of faith was that faith is believing that God is going to do what he says he is going to do, because He is faithful, trustworthy and doesn't break His promises.  

Andy explained that between hope and faith there is a bridge between hope and faith.  First he explained hope as something that we would like to happen, by using the analogy of calling someone to ask if they want to have lunch with. He hoped they would meet him for lunch, (something he would like to happen), but to have faith that they were going to meet him for lunch something needed to happen.  The person had to call back and say they were going to meet you for lunch.  If they never did this, there was not “promise”, meaning that you did not have a guaranteed outcome.  Hope, as I understand, is therefore an outcome that you desire.   

Andy then defined Faith as being certain of who God is and being certain that what He says is going to happen, will happen.  This is where the paw-paw hit the fan for me last night.  I then totally freaked out and was like, "if you're being certain of who God is and that he'll do what he says he will do, then you can't link it to personal promises God makes to you."  I can have faith that God will provide, heal etc. because that is who he is and he does that.  When it came to God promising something to you like being a missionary, or who you'll marry or what you'll do with your life  because there isn't a certain outcome  because t can be influenced by sin, bad choices, other people etc., so you can only hope that will happen because you can make bad choices. I was really stuck on this and felt like it was pointless having faith in something that wasn't guaranteed and could change, in other words something that wasn't guaranteed.  I couldn't see past my confusion, or my heightened emotions  because of this.  I was just stuck and it never made sense to me, and the more I tried to explain how I understood it, the more worked up I got and the more frustrated I got.  It literally felt like I was going to explode and I couldn't process anything.


....BUT then this morning I had a light bulb moment while I was brushing my teeth and it all made sense.  I started to think about it again and I broke it down.  Faith is being certain of who God is. 

I know who God is, he's good, faithful, powerful, in control, trustworthy etc. 

The second half is knowing that God will do what he says he is going to do. 

We know that God will do what he says he will do, because of who He is and not because of the outcome.  I can have faith that God will do what he says he will do because of who He is.  

After I had that thought the light bulb went on and I was like, "Oh". We have faith in God and NOT the situation. We place our faith in God and not the outcome.  I was looking at the outcome and saying, if it's not guaranteed then why have faith.  That's wrong, that's basing my faith on the situation and not God.  God determines the outcome, he knows what is good for us and he always works the good for us.   We shouldn't let our faith be determined by the outcome or the promise made to us. Our faith needs to be and has to be in God.

.... So after all the emotion and a good nights sleep I was finally able to understand and see the light.

xKx