I haven’t had much faith lately. I know, I shouldn’t say that. I haven’t lost my faith. You can’t lose something you don’t have.
“Don’t confess that. “
But you can’t fake faith.
You can’t hype yourself up.
Faith that is faith is real.
It isn’t conjured up on some sentiment, or wishful thinking. Faith is none of those things.
Faith is a supernatural conviction that a supernatural God will supernaturally supercede all circumstances.
In reality, most of what we see as faith is actually wishful thinking. Of believing harder. A case of overcoming spiritual constipation.
I want my son to be healed. And on good moments, I believe that it will happen. But at other times, I doubt. I despair.
Which lead me back to the scriptures. And what I discovered may surprise you. I know it did me.
I discovered that there are actually three different kinds of faith in the scriptures.
-
Faith that every believer in Jesus has.
Without faith, we can not come to him. We can not receive salvation except by faith. It was the great cry of the reformers. SOLA FIDE. By faith alone. We all have some measure of faith, whether we believe it or not.
2. Supernatural faith.
Miracle working faith that is a gift for some. Here is where some get into trouble. Faith is listed as one of the 9 manifestation gifts in 1 Corinthians. No all have the gift of prophecy. Not all work miracles. And not all have this kind of faith. It is a GIFT that God gives some for the accomplishment of building up his church and his purposes on earth.
3. Borrowed faith.
And this one brings me so much comfort. This is faith that someone else has and uses not on their behalf, but on the behalf of others. The 4 men who drop Jesus down through the hole in the roof loaned their faith to their friend.
Funny thing is, I sometimes have faith for others than I don’t have for myself. An outsiders perspective is often useful when it comes to engaging your faith. Borrowed faith, or shared faith, or communal faith, is when we don’t ask brother or sister in Christ to pretend, but rather we walk with them, lifting up their burdens. Sometimes we can have great faith in one area and struggle in others.
Jesus called his disciples “little faiths.”
Then he entrusted the entire future of the church, and through the church, the entire planet, to them.
I have faith. For lots of things. Just some of the situations that are too close to me, I’m going to need to borrow yours.
So what is faith? Maybe you could loan some of yours to me, or a friend who seems to have lost theirs.
Instead of faking it.