Faith and Trust

Something that is probably obvious to others has only recently become clear in my mind. Faith and trust are different. One is built on the other but they are not the same thing.

If I go to the dictionary for help I usually don’t find much help. Looking at Faith I found:

1. Confidence or trust in a person or thing:
2. Belief that is not based on proof:
3. Belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion:
4. Belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.:
5. A system of religious belief.”

Faith can’t be proved by the scientific method. Many things can’t but because it can’t be “proven” it is easily dismissed by many in the scientific community. For some odd reasons, some people of faith want to debate the issue with those who dismiss belief in God because it can’t be proven. That is a real waste of time because the two sides can’t be debated because there is not common ground or a set of shared values. Thus, in the end, each side is sure they won the debate because the opposition’s argument made no sense to them. Correctness and victory are in the eyes of the beholder. The victory of the “science guy” is widely held because science has become our modern religious faith system. Most educated within the humanist educational system just assume the scientific method is not to be denied.

Faith believes in things unseen and the un-seeable. The author of Hebrews put it like this. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1-2 NIV) A person of faith believes in something one doesn’t see but we can often see the results of the existence of that which is unseen. The Bible mentions the wind. It moves about and we can’t see it but we can feel it on our faces and see the leaves on the trees being stirred. Another example of an unseen force is love. I can’t see love as a force but I have seen love at work and have felt the impact of love on my life.

To know God and have a relationship with God, one must have faith in God. God is not seen. When I share with non-believers that I have never seen God but have seen God at work, they tend to dismiss such talk as silly because their belief system has no room for God – no room for the unseen and unprovable. They can’t believe me because to do so would call for a complete recalibration of their core values. And that is way too difficult and too much work.

Much of what we read in scripture is about faith. We talk about faith. We seek to have more faith. But Hebrews tells us that faith is a part of the Christian’s Elementary education. Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. (Hebrews 6:1-3 NIV) Faith is basic to all that Believers understand about God and the things of the Kingdom of God. It is one of the foundation blocks upon which we build. Faith is necessary to coming to know God and for growing spiritually.

Faith, practiced, is powerful. We see that in a couple of stories of faith recorded by Matthew. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” Matthew 9:20-31 (NIV)

Without trust, faith is fragile. Trust is built when faith is put to work and produces results. When one starts to experience the results of putting one’s faith in God one begins to trust God. For the mature Christian, faith is no longer an issue because, by living a life of faith, we have come to trust God.

When I think of faith and trust I think of my relationship with my wife, Nancy. Before I met her I had faith in love and that I would someday meet the love of my life. I couldn’t see love. I had not yet experienced loving someone in that way. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen that kind of relationship in action. But I had faith it could happen. All I had was that precarious faith in an unseen possibility. And then I met Nancy. And our relationship grew as we experienced each other and life together. As our relationship grew my trust grew. Do I have faith in Nancy? Sure. But more than that, I trust Nancy.

As long as we seek to prove or disprove God according to the scientific method we will fail. Instead I encourage you to experience God. God is not to be proven; the Living God is to be experienced through a vital and growing daily relationship. Trust me on this. J

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/William-T-McConnell/812462358785951 or on Twitter @bill45053.

Aroma Therapy

It seems that our most used sense is sight. We often forget how powerful our senses of hearing and smell are. The sense of smell is so powerful that some people now practice aroma therapy. Almost every home I enter has scented candles scattered about practically every room. Smell is important and we will come back to that.

I have been thinking about this since participating in a conversation about how rarely we Christians share our faith and talk to others about Jesus. We had gathered around some delicious pizza and the conversation soon turned to sharing our faith experiences. Everyone at the table was passionate about Jesus and all also admitted to rarely talking about Jesus to non-believers. That didn’t make any sense. Jesus is important to all of us, all of us have had life-changing experiences with Christ, and yet, we rarely mention him. One person pulled out that often used quote wrongly attributed to St. Francis Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” I call this the “Great Evangelism Cop-out” quote. We love to believe that people will just look at our amazing lives, connect the dots to Jesus, and become Christians. What a crock.

At our church we are suffering through a sermon series on Practical Atheists. The church members are suffering through hearing it and I am suffering through delivering it. It is not what I would call a fun sermon series. For people who like sermons of sunshine and lollypops and balloons every Sunday, this series is painful. The question is asked – “Are we who we say we are?” Do we carry the name Christian but, when it comes down to living life; to making the daily decisions on how we treat others, how we parent, how we spend our money, the jokes we tell, the cars we buy, how we educate our children, why we go (or don’t go) to church, we live as if there were no God. We are, when it comes to the practicalities of life, atheists. The sermon series is going over like a lead balloon. Two more weeks of this and we will be able to hold church in the coat closet. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” I wonder if he meant it would make us free from attending church worship services?

Anyway, when it comes to sharing the great good news that God is real, Jesus is alive and God loves us and forgives us, we act as if we haven’t a clue. It is just something we don’t do. Instead, we hope people will just see what a difference Jesus makes in our lives and develop a desire to be like us – to have what we have. It is a great theory. Unfortunately, for that approach to work, knowing Jesus must impact our lives and change us. Instead, we want just enough God to save us but not to change us. In Revelation 3, Jesus wrote to the church at Laodicea and said, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16) This little piece of scripture takes on even great meaning and has more impact when you know that the Greek word translated “spit” can also be translated spew or vomit. I don’t know about you, but I just never want to hear Jesus say, “You make me want to throw up.” Lukewarm is not good.

I had always wondered why Jesus said he would rather we be hot or cold – anything but lukewarm. Lukewarm seemed better than cold to me. Then I realized that being lukewarm meant we were no different than the people who make no claim to know God. People without a relationship with God would look at those of us who claimed to know God and think, “Why would I want to be a Christian? He is a Christian and it is making no difference in his life. He is as unhappy as I am, struggles with the same issues I struggle with and chases after the same stuff I want. The only difference I can see is that he gets up early Sunday morning, gets dressed up and goes to church to listen to a boring talk, give them some money and hang out with some boring people. Instead, I can sleep in, have a nice, hot cup of coffee, read the Sunday paper and go out to brunch with my cool friends. Gee, what a choice. I think I won’t be a Christian.” No wonder we nauseate Jesus. We are not only failing to set him free to impact and change our lives, we are standing in the way of others knowing and experiencing God. It’s a double whammy.

In our conversation someone mentioned that in a sermon recently I said that we should be so filled with the Spirit of the Living God that as we move through life we should just stink of Jesus. That, as we interact with people, they should be able to smell the love and mercy and healing of Jesus all over us. He said, “Instead of smelling of Jesus, I am afraid we just smell. Sometimes I feel like a faith fart and I am not attracting anyone to Jesus.” The conversation left me thinking about what kind of a smell I am giving off. Is my life “Jesus” aroma therapy attracting people to Jesus or am I just a lukewarm Christian stinking the place up?

Perhaps we need to give each other a sniff check every once in a while.

Copyright © 2013, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved