Sunday, October 19, 2014

When Your Faith is Weak

When I was a young Christian a friend of mine named Pat was brutally beaten in a gang fight. He ended up in a coma and was not expected to live. Pat's family knew I was a Christian and they asked me to pray.

It was overwhelming that people were counting on my prayers to help my friend. My faith, what there was of it, seemed so small and weak. 

Then I had a wonderful and liberating thought: maybe I should first ask God to give me the faith to trust Him for this miracle. I didn't know the reference, but I suddenly remembered the phrase, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. (I found it later in Hebrews 12:2).

If Jesus is both the author and the perfecter of our faith, then why not ask Him to grant me faith to believe Him for whatever He wanted to do?

I think we’re on solid Scriptural ground when we ask God to give us faith to trust Him. Saving faith is itself a gift for God (Ephesians 2:8-9 - I wrote about this in Even Your Faith is From Him!) Our Lord has sovereignly gifted us with “a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). Certainly He can, if He chooses, increase that measure for His own glory.

Remember the father of the demon-possessed boy? He brought his poor, tormented son to Jesus’ disciples, but they couldn't help. So they took him to Jesus, who said, All things are possible for one who believes. So the father prayed: I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24) That’s the prayer I mean.

On another occasion the disciples made a similar request. After Jesus had taught them a very difficult lesson about forgiveness, they cried out, Increase our faith! (Luke 17:5)

Praying for greater faith recognizes it comes from the Lord in the first place. How humbling is it to admit that the one thing God tells us we must do - trust Him! - is itself beyond us apart from His grace!

Notice, this is not a way of manipulating God into giving us want we want. With humble hearts we approach our God, knowing that He controls all things and that all He has chosen to do will be done. But He has given us prayer as one of the ways we participate in His will being done. So we pray: “Lord, I’m not sure what Your plans are in this situation. My heart longs to see X, Y, and Z happen, and I hope that’s what You’ll do. I believe, but help my unbelief. Grant that I can believe you for whatever You want done, to Your glory and honor. Your will be done!”

So that’s how I prayed, so many years ago. Father, please grant me the faith to believe whatever You want to do. I believe, but help my unbelief. Please heal Pat!

God was so gracious: Pat came out of the coma and recovered completely.