Underpinning what God has done for mankind with the sacrifice of His Son is the supreme choice facing mankind; to believe or deny that fact. Each one of us must face that bridge and make the decision to cross or not. If we stay on our side of the chasm, we find ourself sleeping with doubt, fear, unbelief, and ultimately death. Only on God’s side will we find security, faith, peace, joy, and life.
Since a good part of my life has been involved with flying it was an easy metaphor for me to use in understanding faith. When clouds surround you there is only one option; trust your instruments. Without them you are hopelessly at the mercy of your five senses, which will only confuse you and lead you down the road of disaster. But, if you follow the instruments in the face of the conflicting information coming from your senses, you can be certain of staying right side up and on course.
The world is just like those clouds, it can surround you with circumstances that blind you to the true path, and when you lean on your own understanding you often find yourself upside down and in a nose dive. Only when we exercise our faith and lean on God’s Word can we right ourselves and once again get under control.
I also find it very interesting that learning to fly on instruments first takes place when you are flying along at altitude, not during the more dangerous aspects of takeoff and landing; that comes later. So it is with faith. As it grows, we take on more difficult challenges. The fully qualified instrument pilot can literally begin and end his flight totally dependent upon his instruments. The bride of Christ has that same capacity; to live every day from morning to night in complete control no matter how violent the storm … but it takes time.
God has been faithful to give us many examples of faith in His Word, and they are all there for the express purpose of building up our faith. Just like a muscle, faith becomes more developed and stronger through exercise and use. Do not exercise it and just the opposite happens. Sometimes when one is incapacitated, muscles become atrophied and they lose their strength. In their weakened state they are unable to function as they normally due. That is why medical personnel will get the patient moving and exercising at the earliest possible time. Without strength in those unused muscles the healing process will take a lot longer. The same holds true for faith, if we don’t use it we will be in trouble when the trials of life present themselves.
More about faith in The Foundations of Faith in The Way of Enoch Series, which you an download for free.