Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, says that three words will always remain: faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love because, as 1 John 4 states, God IS love and He is greater than all that we can think or imagine! Hope, on the other hand, evokes feelings of expectation and shows, as Christians, our belief in our righteousness through Christ, our understanding of our freedom from the chains of sin, and our desire for the second coming of Jesus. Faith encompasses both hope and love and is described perfectly in Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things that we cannot see.” This is a seemingly ‘simple’ definition, but faith requires complete and utter trust in God, and, in some situations in life this seems almost unattainable. Many times throughout the gospels, Jesus, while healing, proclaims to the people that “[their] faith” has healed and saved them (eg. Luke 7:50, Matthew 9:22, Luke 18:42, and Mark 10:52). I never knew what to think about that because, if Jesus was to heal me, I wouldn’t want it to be about me at all! He is the one who deserves to be glorified. I know that He could heal me if I KNEW He would or even if I doubted Him. God doesn’t need me to do anything. Because of this, the idea of these people and THEIR faith having anything to do with why Jesus healed them never sat well with me . . . until I began to see faith from a different point of view.
Here’s the thing: Love is not ours. Hope is not ours. Faith is not ours. All of these are gifts, given to us from God, by God and through God. Without Him, none of these would exist! Yes, Jesus healed many people because of their faith, but their faith is not even theirs in the first place. In 1 Corinthians 15:14 it says: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Our faith is founded on Christ’s death and resurrection! If Jesus did not take our sins upon Himself on the cross, conquer the grave, and then rise again in victory, we would have nothing to have faith in. Praise be to the one who shows us everlasting love, who provides us with confident hope, and who gives us faith, showing us that we can believe in what we can’t see (God) because of all of the amazing and beautiful things that we can see.
Romans 1:20: “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
Written by: Justine Boles
Refined Joy 