There are two concepts of faith, which at times seem at war with each other. One is faith great enough to believe God for great things. The other is the ability to believe God no matter what happens. One is the ability to trust God for a miracle; the other is the ability to trust God if the miracle does not happen. And the problem is that both types of faith are Biblical (Hebrews 11:32-40; Acts 19:11-12; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). It is often hard to know what type of faith to exercise in a given situation, and we need to trust God for wisdom to knowing how to proceed (Proverbs 3:5,6; James 1:5; Psalms 46:10). David as a young man slew a great giant because he trusted in God. He then spent the years after that, to age thirty, running from King Saul, who wanted to kill him, before he received God's promise of a kingdom. God, in His plan, will normally give us opportunity to exercise both types of faith. We should not let this take us by surprise.
My take is that we always need to trust God in life and not use him like a genie in a bottle. Hence, mostly we exercise faith "in" things and not "for" things. Not that I don't pray every day for my wife to permanently leave her wheelchair behind. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, God is not our genie and it does not work to treat Him like one. (But I will join you in prayer for your wife's healing.)
DeleteThanks Mike. Much appreciated.
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