Faith Holds the Place
The
most common definition of faith is quoted from Hebrews 11. Verse one defines
faith in this way: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.”
Faith
is real, it is a substance! I think of it like this; faith is what you have
while you wait for what you are having faith for. We hope for things, pray for
things and wait for them to be realized. When we are still hoping and waiting,
faith is what we have. We believe that the answer is coming. That believing, is
faith. Faith holds the place. Once the answer comes, faith is no longer needed.
My
husband and I dealt with unexplained infertility for 5 years before we got
pregnant with our first son. We had waited several years after we got married
to start trying to get pregnant, then when we wanted to have a baby, we
couldn’t! Without getting into the details of that difficult and complex time,
I’ll just use it as an example of faith. We both believed that we had a promise
from God that He would heal me and that we would have our own biological
children. We had faith that God could and would answer our prayers and great
desire to have kids. But for years, there was lots of bad news, and no
pregnancy. We had faith, but at times it felt thin and weak. It wasn’t an easy
road, and at times I felt like my faith might not survive! Eventually, and with
some medical intervention, we did get pregnant. We didn’t need faith that I
would get pregnant anymore, because now I was!
For
those 5 years of infertility, we only had faith and a sense of promise. Our son
felt like a miracle, but my body was also healed in the process. After his
birth, all the hormonal and medical issues that were making it
difficult/impossible for me to get pregnant were no longer present. I was
healed! Faith held the space from the time we believed we would have a baby
until we had one! And then we had 3
more!
I
have numerous other examples of things I have had faith for and then
experienced them coming to pass. We all do! We love these testimonies of how
our faith was rewarded with the promise “coming true”.
But
we all have stories of disappointment too; times when what we were believing
would happen did not. I have them: people I prayed for in faith that they would
be healed and instead they died, women I prayed would have my same testimony
and instead they remain childless, and countless other examples of “unanswered
prayers”. What do we say in these instances? Was faith not rewarded? Was it not
enough faith? The questions are endless and the answers elusive. I will not
even begin to try to answer them.
Yet
I do still think it remains true; faith holds the place. Faith remains; “Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Our faith is disappointed when our prayers go
unanswered, or they are not answered in the way we wanted them to be. But faith
still holds the place. If we still believe in God and have our faith in Him,
then faith is filling the space between what we believe for and what we
experience.
Faith
is our connection to God. Faith fills the space between us and Him; between our
earthly experience and His heavenly reality. When prayers are answered, it can
feel that a bit of heaven invades earth and we are rewarded. The converse is true
with the opposing emotion; our prayers are not answered and we feel the
disappointment of our earthly reality being unchanged by the power of heaven.
Sometimes
we forget that faith is the connection, the substance that exists between us
and our God. We begin to mix it up with the request. If I have faith that God
will provide for a financial need that I have, my faith is in God, not the
money I need. I am believing that God will provide it in one way or another. I
have testimonies of people giving me the amount of money I needed. But I also
have testimonies of times where I felt God directing me to go without something
or change a decision in order to have the money for the need. In those times I
felt that God provided by giving me wisdom and grace to make those choices that
resulted in the need being provided for. My faith is in God; His ability and
willingness to provide. Once the need is provided for, I no longer need faith
for that specific need.
I
think sometimes we wait and see how something plays out to decide if we have
faith for it or not. But faith is not the thing that we are waiting for!
Faith is the substance that you hold while you wait. Faith
occupies that time and space between the prayer and the fulfillment of it.
When
my husband and I were praying and believing for a baby, our faith was in God
and His power to heal my body and bless us with a baby. Our faith wasn’t in the
baby! Nor was it in our ability to get pregnant. Our faith was in God. We believed that
He had the ability to heal me and cause us to get pregnant. We believed that He
wanted us to conceive. We believed that He would direct us and guide us in the
choices to make and how to respond. We believed that He was in control; not
ourselves or even the doctors advising us.
When
my prayers and faith have gone unanswered, my faith still connects me to God.
My faith is not determined by the outcome. I know this, and yet sometimes I
still find myself waiting and evaluating my faith based on the outcome. I ask questions like: “Do I have enough
faith?” “Will my faith be rewarded?” Or I look back at the times where I was
disappointed by my faith and I wonder what went wrong. I ask “Did I hear God
wrong?” “Did I pray the wrong way?” “Did I not have enough faith?” But faith is
not the outcome. Faith is the process; it is the connection point between us
and God. Faith holds the place; it fills the space.
Even
in the tragic, most painful places where I look back and my prayers for healing
were not answered, but instead the person died, I still see faith. I didn’t get
the reward of faith I was hoping and believing for, but I am not empty handed!
Faith still holds the place. Faith still connects me to God. I don’t like the
outcome, but I am still convinced that He had and still has the power to
heal.
Faith
is the substance of what I hope for and the certainty of what I cannot see.
Whether my prayers are answered or not, faith is still that connection between
me and God. Faith is what I cling to when my prayers are not answered. Faith is
what I rejoice in when my prayers are answered. And whether my prayers are
answered or not, my faith increases. The joy of faith being rewarded by
answered prayers causes an increase of faith that is delightful. But in times
of disappointment, faith is a life-line to the peace and comfort that is only
found in God. That connection and the process of being loved and comforted in
the midst of loss and disappointment increases faith as well.
The true reward of faith is God Himself and our connection with Him! We do not see God and yet we believe in Him. That belief, that substance that connects us to Him, is faith.
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