Have Real Faith
I’m always a bit stunned when I see or hear those with no discernible life of faith talk about having faith or keeping faith. To me, it seems to be a vague belief in the goodness of fate, that somehow, if we just believe that everything will work out OK, then it will. And, of course, what we mean by “OK” is “something I’ll be happy with.”
The Bible means something quite different when we are encouraged to live by faith. On Sunday we will read the oft quoted verse “the righteous live by their faith” from from the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk. Little is actually known about Habakkuk and we read from the book only once in our three year cycle of readings.
Habakkuk lived near the end of the seventh century BC, as the Chaldeans (later, Babylonians) were beginning to invade and conquer Israel. Habakkuk watched and wondered why God did not deliver His people from the Chaldeans and much of the book is Habakkuk trying to come to grips with God allowing Israel to fall.
But he finally realizes that his place is not to judge God but to watch and wait for His deliverance. “The righteous live by their faith” is what he learns, not by their perception of their circumstances. The righteous do not live by their perfect morals or by their ability to see into the future of God’s work. Rather the righteous — those who are right with God — live by their confidence in God, not their ability to read and understand their circumstances.
Living by faith today is not a vague trust in fate that everything will be OK, but it is an unshakable confidence that, even in the midst of plentiful evidence to the contrary, God can be trusted, even with my very life. And the mark of the righteous is that they live by this confidence.
Are you confident that God can be trusted? What are the things that shake that confidence, or draw you from faith? How can you turn those things over to God?
This column appeared in the October 30, 2022 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.
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