A Ready Trust
“The only thing that matters is faith working through love.”
“And without faith it is impossible to please [God].”
“Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
Faith is the bottom line of Christian life. Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The whole arc of Scripture is a persistent call to faith.
Faith has three ingredients:
Thresholds⏤doorways from the seen to the unseen.
Trust⏤confidence in one who is worthy of trust.
Agency⏤the freedom, desire, ability, and resources to engage and participate.
These elements of faith need clarification:
Is the unseen space real? Is it grounded in reality? Or is it imagined?
Who is worthy? Who can be trusted?
Where does our strength to engage and participate come from?
Faith is not just a set of religious values. It’s not a leap. It’s not a commodity that we mine, conjure up, or amass. Faith is relational. It’s trust that’s able to take a step. All of us were born into a faulty depiction of reality⏤one that kicks against beauty, goodness, and truth. So, God has described authentic reality for us (his kingdom), and we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. But who will we trust? Who can be trusted?
God reveals himself to us: “I am love; I am light; I am life; and I AM”. God is a self-giving God. In him is found all truth. And it’s in our attachment to him that we receive life. God is from everlasting to everlasting. He sees everything there is to see. He knows everything there is to know. His might meets no rival. Nothing else we’re inclined to trust can make these claims.
In Psalm 121, the psalmist sings, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”. In 2 Corinthians, Paul shares these words that Jesus spoke to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. The God who sees and knows is also the God who helps and equips and empowers. God’s grace is enough, and it’s available. Will we take hold of it?
Our faith may be no bigger than a mustard seed, but our trust is in One who can grow the smallest grain into a magnificent plant that nourishes us and others. What’s required is that we discern what is real. Then, with trust in God and by his grace, we step across a threshold and rest our full weight on the unseen. This is a step of faith. This is the substance of Christian life.
To live by faith in God is to say “Yes and Amen” even before we know what he will ask or say. Because we trust him. In that posture, how do we read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7? How do we respond to Jesus’ Great Commandment in Matthew 22:36-40? And how do we produce the fruit of a Spirit-led life (Galatians 5:13-26)?
When adversity comes, it’s faith that keeps us rooted⏤keeps us anchored. Under a searing sun, faith slakes our thirst. In the tempest, we listen for God’s voice, “Peace. Be still”. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith”
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