You Could If You Would
We often hear the phrase “blind faith” because for a lot of people seeing is believing, so if you haven’t seen something or if it hasn’t already happened then your only option is guesswork, as there’s no physical evidence for it.
Biblical faith is completely different. Biblical faith isn’t blind or guesswork; it is based on the promises of God. Hebrews 11 - which reads as a faith-filled hall of fame - tells us that Noah hadn’t yet seen the flood, but he had been “warned about things not yet seen”, so he built the ark in faith. We also read that Abraham had faith in his calling; in fact Abraham’s name described his calling and God gave him the name “father of many nations” before he even had any children.
Abraham’s faith was rooted in God’s promises and God’s character: the all-powerful, all-loving mighty God. This is the kind of faith that doesn’t claim that seeing is believing; biblical faith declares “believing is seeing”. Faith says, “I will believe in the promises of God, I will trust in His character and I will walk by faith and not by sight”.
Daring faith means we can see things from God’s point of view. When we look at what God says is possible our vision enlarges. Not only do seemingly insurmountable challenges seem possible to overcome, but we can have daring faith in a God who can do immeasurably more. Not only can we believe for our friends, colleagues, neighbours and family to have an awareness of who God is, we can have faith to see them receiving salvation, knowing God’s transforming love and experiencing life to the full.
Daring faith demands action; in our humanness we say, “I would if I could”, but God says, “You could if you would”. That’s why it’s called “a step of faith” – because we have to move, we have to respond to God’s promises and pursue knowledge of Him, getting more into the Bible to deepen our understanding of His character, worshipping and spending time with Him.
Corrie Ten Boom said, “Faith hears the inaudible, sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible”. Let’s dare to grasp hold of His promises for our lives and for the lives of others and exercise a faith that sees what is possible through Him.
Catherine De Souza, 3rd June 2020
