Faith: It's value before God
Faith is based on the knowledge that God is faithful to us in a way that we cannot even comprehend. This enables us to be at rest in His presence enjoying peace and fullness of joy. It also enables us to grow in faith. This study looks at how God values and responds to our faith.
God’s value of faith and his response to our faith
We have seen how God’s faithfulness provides a firm foundation for our faith. We have also seen that faith is a gift from God and not something that gives any glory to God. Every Christian has faith because we have trusted in the Lord Jesus to save us from our sins at some point in our lives. However, that faith might be weak. Often we are prepared to trust the Lord to remove our sins but not in our daily struggles. We have to commit finance, health, relationships, etc. into His hands too. Sometimes we struggle on with a problem and wonder why God hasn’t intervened. Very often the problem is not with Him or His faithfulness to us but rather that we haven’t actually committed the problem into His hands because we don’t believe that God is the best person to solve it. When we do commit things into His hands He delights to respond.
God knows our faith and how much we have
Firstly, God knows our faith and when we are entrusting things to Him.
“I know thy works, and love, and faith, and service, and thine endurance, and thy last works to be more than the first” (Revelation 2:19).
When we feel overwhelmed by circumstances it is often because we are lacking in faith and aren’t trusting Him.
“And he says to them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then, having arisen, he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” (Matthew 8:26).
Had they remembered who the Lord Jesus was (as Son of God and God manifest in flesh) they wouldn’t have been afraid in the storm knowing that all things are under His control.
“And Jesus knowing it, said, Why reason ye among yourselves, O ye of little faith, because ye have taken no bread?” (Matthew 16:8).
Jesus challenged the disciples because they had twice seen Him feed thousands of people with only a few loaves and fishes yet they worried about the amount of bread they had taken for their own provision. Surely they should have known that He could provide for all their needs.
God loves to respond to our faith.
Secondly, He delights to answer faith. The Lord Jesus often responded to faith and to give a couple of examples we can see His response to the woman with a flux of blood:
“But Jesus turning and seeing her, said, Be of good courage, daughter; thy faith has healed thee. And the woman was healed from that hour.” (Matthew 9:22) and to the Syro-Phoenician woman, [Jesus] “said to her, O woman, thy faith is great. Be it to thee as thou desirest. And her daughter was healed from that hour” (Matthew 15:28).
On some occasions He said “According to your faith, be it unto you.” (Matthew 9:29). Therefore, the response that He gave was often in response to the faith of those who came to Him or indeed the faith of those who brought the person. In Capernaum some men lowered a paralysed man through the roof of the house in which Jesus was teaching because they couldn’t get through the door. He responded to the faith of the men by healing the paralysed man.
“And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, laid upon a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Be of good courage, child; thy sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2, see also Mark2v5).
Sometimes He was very direct in attaching healing to faith when He said that a person was healed because of their faith, e.g. “And he said to her, Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace, and be well of thy scourge” (Mark 5:34) and “Jesus said to him, Go, thy faith has healed thee. And he saw immediately, and followed him in the way” (Mark 10:52).
A little faith can accomplish much ...
Thirdly, the measure of our faith doesn’t have to be great.
“And [Jesus] says to them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be transported hence there, and it shall transport itself; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20).
We don’t need to have a great measure of faith to follow and trust in God. A little bit of faith in God can accomplish great results and we can remove many mountains in our lives simply by entrusting them into God’s hands that He might deal with them according to His will for us.