What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Romans 4:1-3
When I think of great faith, I think about my heroes in the Bible like Elijah who faced the many prophets of Baal and boldly told them three times to drench the sacrifice and when he prayed to the one true God, fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. Then there was Deborah who spoke the word of the Lord to Barak, telling Him that God promised that if he went to battle against Sisera, “God would deliver him into your hand.” Not having enough faith, Barak would not lead the army of Israel into battle unless Deborah went with him. In a culture where women were not honored as leaders, Deborah arose and went to battle with Barak. Fearlessly obeying God and leading the Israelite army into battle, she witnessed the defeat of Sisera that day and the Israelites witnessed God subdue their enemies before their very eyes. Noah who built an ark even though he had never seen it rain. After facing much criticism, was able to preserve a pure genealogy of mankind. Moses who had the courage to face what he had ran from forty years earlier and tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go. He led the grumbling and complaining ungrateful group for forty years in the desert because they refused to take God at His word. Or the Shunamite woman whose son died and she fearlessly went to find Elisha the prophet to come and pray for him. When asked how things were, she responded, “It is well.” She did not stop believing until God brought her son back to life. I know you have your own list of men and women in the Bible who exemplified much faith. After all Jesus said in Luke 17:6 “So the Lord said, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.” Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 “I say to you, if you have the faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” But if we are honest, we all go through those times when it feels like our faith barely gets us through the day, and is so far from moving mulberry trees and mountains. Some of the people who are mentioned in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, and a lot of bad decisions and sometimes even made a mess of their lives, yet God mentions them in the “Hall of Faith.”
Abraham is one of the Patriarchs that made it into Hebrews 11. When I think about Abraham, I understand that God chose him to be the father of Israel and in the end he did so many righteous things and his life was a testimony of the faith he had in God, but we are also given a glimpse of one bad decision after another. Abraham left Ur to follow God to a land that God “would show him and make him a great nation.” Abraham obeyed God and packed up his family and their belongings and followed God on the journey of a lifetime. Not long after he started the journey, they experienced a famine in the land so Abraham took his wife Sarah and all that he had and went to Egypt. Before they even arrived in Egypt, Abraham told Sarah you are beautiful so tell everyone that you are my sister so they will treat me well, for if they know you are my wife, they will kill me. Just as Abraham had feared, the Egyptians saw that Sarah was very beautiful and they took into Pharaoh’s house. Abraham allowed them to take her instead of being honest and trusting God to protect them. Thankfully the Lord defended Sarah a caused a plague to come on Pharaoh for taking her. Pharaoh having the fear of God, sent Abraham, Sarah and all their possessions out of the land with the command that no one was to harm them. In the next chapter we find Lot’s men fighting Abraham’s men because the land was unable to support both households. “God had warned Abraham to leave his family, and Abraham was not completely obedient and took Lot with him.” When the son of Promise did not come as quickly as Abraham and Sarah wanted, Abraham went into Sarah’s handmaid and tried to force the promise of God to come to pass. A few years later, Abraham took his family on another journey and as they came to Gerar, Abraham told Sarah once again to tell them she was his sister so they would not hurt Abraham. Once again God had to defend Sarah from the King who wanted to take her for his wife. It is easy to be critical and ask why a man of faith could not pray against famines and cause the drought to end, trust God to protect his family, or trust God to keep His promise of an heir. Romans 4 makes it clear that it “Abraham was not justified by works.” But, Romans 4 does not say Abraham did everything right, and became justified by God for his obedience. Instead the scripture said, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
In fact, if you go back through Hebrews 11 and study all the people listed in the chapter some had no recorded “sin” and it would be easy to understand why they made it on the list, there are others who it is easy to see that not all of them were perfect, they had a flaw (or flaws) the Bible revealed and wonder why God put them on the list of Faith. Jacob stole his brother’s birth right. After God told Moses the angel would lead them to the promised land, Moses told God he would not go unless God went with him and then he struck the rock when he was supposed to speak to it. Rahab did not perish when Jericho fell even though she was a prostitute. Gideon was hiding in the wine press threshing wheat when the angel commissioned him. Barak hid behind the skirts of Deborah when they went to battle against Sisera. Samson gave up his calling for a safe place to lay his head. David committed adultery and had Bathsheba’s husband killed. Sadly, I would not have added some of them to the Chapter of Faith. Thankfully God sees the heart and not the outward appearance.
The truth be known, no matter the Faith we have or how long we have walked with God, we have all been there. In seasons in our life, we find ourselves making choices that just create one problem after another, kind of like Abraham. When we go through a painful and difficult season, the enemy wants to bring back up all the bad decisions and the times we did not stand and challenge our faith because we “failed to trust God.” If we are not careful, we look back over our past mistakes and shortcomings and come into agreement with the enemy, believing that we just do not have faith and God must see us as we “judged” the people in Hebrews 11 by their flaws. Somehow the church has bought into the lie that if we just have enough faith, we would never face a mountain that would not move instantly (sometimes they move one shovel at a time) or a deep-rooted problem like a mulberry tree that would not shrivel up and die like the fig tree Jesus cursed. We want our “perfect” works to justify us and prove we have faith in God. Perhaps real faith is saying I trust the sovereignty of God no matter the problem, the delay, the outcome, or whether I am responsible for the mess. Maybe we are looking at our challenges and times of weakness all wrong.
All Christians are given a measure of faith, Romans 12:3 “God has dealt to each one a measure of Faith.” And Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Our faith is strengthened or grows when we walk through “the valley of the shadow of death.” Thankfully we go through seasons and it is easy to have faith to believe that God has already provided all that we need, but we also go through those seasons where it feels like the heavens are closed and no matter what scriptures we quote of prayers we pray, the problem does not go away and we by into the lie that we just do not have faith in God. James 1:2-4 puts things in another perspective, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.: Instead of believing the lie that we have buy, perhaps we should change our way of thinking, God allowed the difficult situation to try and grow our faith. It is one thing to believe God’s promises and it is another to see the promises of God come to pass in our own lives. I had epilepsy as a child and I remember having two seizures. One time I was in the back seat our station wagon and has a seizure, almost swallowing a life saver I was sucking on. The other time, I was riding my bike when it happened and I fell of it and shook for several minutes on the ground before help arrived. Then God healed me and I have never had a seizure since then. I know what it feels when God heals you and changes your life for the better. No one can convince me that miracles and healings ended with the new church, I experienced healing in my own life and I am convinced that God is still my healer. I know God is my provider, when we first married we struggled like most newly weds with finances, and I would drive to the beauty shop on Saturdays telling God what bills I had to pay that week, and it never failed God sent enough business to pay my tithes, the bills and blessed me a little coke or a meal out the next week. Sometimes what we see as a season of not having enough faith, is really God allowing us to go through the “hands on training” that perfects us. Like James 1:4 “That we may be perfect and complete lacking nothing,” Maybe your faith is being perfected and you are facing a mountain or mulberry tree that will not move. The mountain is the tangible outside problems that refuse to budge and the mulberry trees represent the deep rooted internal generational curses, hurts, anxieties, disappointments, abuse, or even wrong teaching that seems to keep showing its ugly head when you face difficulty. No matter how many scriptures that you quote or how many times you pray they just won’t seem to leave. Cling to God and remember 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless (do not believe and are untrue to Him) He remains true (faithful to is Word and His righteous Character) for He cannot deny Himself.” For those who are going through the season of trials, I pray for you like Jesus prayed for Peter, “When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start.” Message translation. You will come through this and when you get out, you will have a new faith and perspective to help those who are going through the same thing out. Remember Romans 4:5 “But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Our righteousness is not based on our perfect works, but whether we hold onto the believe that God exists and He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Cathy Nesmith