The Answer of Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please God, and those who have placed their faith in Jesus will often be challenged to trust God more than we ever imagined.  All who are born again Christians have trusted in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, yet our tendency is to continue to rely on our own understanding, to operate within the realm of what seems possible.  One amazing aspect of our God is He is the God of the impossible, for when there is no human solution He can easily accomplish what we never thought to ask or entered our minds.

In the book True Discipleship by William MacDonald, there is a great excerpt credited to C.H. Mackintosh that bears repeating:

"Faith brings God into the scene, and therefore it knows absolutely nothing of difficulties--yea, it laughs at impossibilities.  In the judgment of faith, God is the grand answer to every question--the grand solution of every difficulty.  It refers all to Him; and hence it matters not in the least to faith whether it be six hundred thousand (dollars) or six hundred million; it knows that God is all sufficient.  It finds all its resources in Him.  Unbelief says, "How can such and such things be?"  It is full of "hows;" but faith has one great answer to ten thousand "hows," and that answer is God." (MacDonald, William. True Discipleship. Gospel Folio Press, 2003. page 48)

In this quote, Mackintosh likely alluded to the unnamed man upon whom the king leaned mentioned in 2 Kings 7 who baulked at the word of the LORD through Elisha, that the following day people would be buying fine flour and barley at bargain prices in the gate of Samaria.  From a human perspective, the man's doubts were perfectly reasonable, seeing the city of Samaria had been under siege by the Syrians so long people had resorted to cannibalism to survive.  What the prophet said seemed utterly impossible and ridiculous based on reality.  Even if God should open the heavens and rain down manna upon His people, would they dare venture outside the gate to gather it up with the Syrians poised to slaughter them?

The word of the LORD came to pass in a miraculous and simple way:  God made the Syrian army hear a great noise of chariots, horses and marching soldiers.  They imagined the Hittites and Egyptians had mustered armies against them, so they fled from the camp and left all their food and supplies behind.  What was completely impossible and unforeseeable was easily known and accomplished by God according to His word as 2 Kings 7:16 says:  "Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD."  The man who did not believe God's word spoken by Elisha was not able to partake of the divine provision, for he was trampled in the gate by the hungry mob--again, as God had said.

We have trusted God for our salvation and that He answers prayer, and I was convicted of my lack of faith concerning what C.H. Mackintosh said.  The LORD enabled me to trust Him to pray for the impossible request of our church being out of debt (which God has done, praise the LORD), but I have not prayed earnestly and regularly with confidence God will give us a church building where children can play outside.  We do not have sufficient financial resources to buy land, building or to afford an additional staff member; I have not yet found a suitable building or property.  Even if I was able to find one, we could not afford it--especially if extensive work is needed.  Thus I have found myself caged in by unbelief because I cannot see any potential answers to this intractable problem.

On one hand I believe if we needed a new building today, God would have already given us one or solved this problem another way.  Thus I am perfectly content with the building we have and thank and praise God for it.  At the same time I desire to provide a safe place for adults and children of all ages to worship the LORD together and an area where kids can play outside.  God has been faithful to supply all my needs, and I trust He will supply the needs of the church in His time even though it is impossible for me to know how, when, or where this could possibly happen.  Praise the LORD He is always the answer to our dilemmas and impossible problems, for He is sufficient!