Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
A common misconception about faith is that you have to believe in things you know aren’t real, a sort of self-willed, blind fantasy. Actually, we all have faith of a sort all the time. I have faith, based on previous experience, that my car will start when I turn the key. Usually it does and my faith is justified. Occasionally the car won’t start - but I don’t give up on it forever.
I charge the battery and then it will start. My faith is justified again, now possibly tinged with doubt on frosty mornings. We have faith in our currency, the stability of our banks (OK, we used to believe that once upon a time), in the quality of our food and in the fairness of our justice system. Although we may doubt some of these things some of the time, we have to go on acting on our faith anyway because we can’t set up our own currency, our own bank or grow all our own food. So, we have faith in a general, worldly sense even when, like with the banks, we can’t prove our faith is well founded. Is faith in God any different?
As a young Christian I was encouraged to keep a ’prayer diary’, that is, a list of specific prayer requests I had made, and check off weekly how many had been answered. I soon found that a remarkable number of prayers were answered. However, I also realised that there are three main answers to prayer - yes, no and wait. We tend to count only the ‛yes’ answers. Some of the ‛no’ answers turned out to be just as blessed as I thought a ‛yes’ would have been. Even the ‛no’s which I didn’t understand did not undermine my faith.
As Joni Ereckson wrote (I paraphrase from memory):
‛God is not a vending machine where we put in a dime of prayer and get out a chocolate bar’.
I already knew that if God is God then we have to give him space to be so. Like a soldier in the trenches, we can’t see the bigger picture. This is one aspect of faith; continuing to trust in God’s righteousness and love even when it is not readily evident.
Another lesson from the prayer diary was that small and personal prayers seemed to be much more frequently answered than prayers about bigger issues. Prayers for safety while leading children’s groups in the Scottish mountains were always answered. Prayers for healing for a university colleague that I was close to were only partially answered. Prayers for a change of government (I’m not sure I actually prayed for that) had to wait for a general election. Then God had to count all the ‛for’ and ‛against’ prayers, their fervency and intensity and take into account the honesty or otherwise of politicians on each side as well as the overall world situation before making his decision. I joke, of course, but you can see why my little prayers might not shape huge events that affect millions. A supreme example of futile prayer is praying for world peace. It’s not Biblical.
Jesus said: “You will hear of be wars and rumours of wars… but the end is not yet” [Mtt 24 v6] - which is to say, there will always be wars somewhere, right up to the last day.
Faith, then, is laying our requests before God and trusting in his answers whatever they are. ‛God works through all things for good’ in the long run [Rom 8 v28] - even if that good is a reward in heaven. Oh, and to complete the quotation: ‛ God works through all things for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose… to be conformed to the likeness of his son (i.e. Christ)’. Any suffering or difficulty we face when prayers are not answered helps us become more like Jesus who asked: “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me’ [Mt 26 v39] and yet ‛he became obedient, even to death on a cross.’[Phil 2v8] ‛for the joy… that was before him (of being resurrected/of providing salvation/and of returning to heaven) [Heb 12 v2].
Finally, faith is a great equaliser. Anyone can have faith, from the least brainy and the positively handicapped to the Einsteins of the world. Faith is a heart response to the gospel, the ‛Good News’. While we should understand as much as we can of God’s plan of salvation, in the end - and at its beginning - it is not an academic exercise. Without a step of faith, the knowledge, the inner assurance of God’s salvation, cannot be experienced. It is a self-validating act, confirmed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when the step is taken. Try it and see! Become a Christian. For some confirmation comes at once. For others it can take a little longer. It may be necessary to stick with it but, as Jesus said, ‛Father… you have hidden these things… from those wise… [that is, those wise in worldly ways or in their own eyes] and revealed them to [those who trust you like] little children.’ [Matt 11 v25]
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