Immovable, Unshakeable, Immeasurable Faith
There are a thousand voices that call to us but only one who whispers, for the one who whispers is the most powerful of them all. It is like the rippling current of a river, the hushed pull of the ocean. It is strong—steady— with a voice so soft it’s easy to forget the power that lingers beneath the surface.
Faith often feels like wading out to the center of a raging river— it was easy to see its tranquility, its beauty, as we stood safely along the bank. Holding your ground against a river’s current seems impossible, and likely it is without some kind of anchor. The water’s pull is frightening. It would be easier to buckle up for the ride and allow the current to pull you which ever direction it desired. Better yet, it would have made more sense to not trek across it to begin with— to watch from a distance.
But, often, faith doesn’t make sense. Not initially. If a sailor gave you a ship with a gaping hole in the hull and told you to sail across the ocean, you would blink a few times, perhaps check his temperature, and think he’d gone mad.
Fortunately for us, God is no feverish sailor. What He brings into our lives, what He asks of us, sometimes it may feel no different than being asked to sail a sinking ship. Sometimes it even gets to the point where we have lost everything and feel as though we are drowning. Sometimes we allow it drag us down. We close our eyes, our limbs have grown too tired, our lungs burn from screaming. So we sink, allowing the darkness to steal our last breath.
It’s in that darkness, that unbearable silence that the whispering voice is the most powerful. There is nothing to distract us, and suddenly that same voice we had thought we couldn’t hear becomes loud and clear.
God may ask us to wade across a raging river, He may ask us to sail across the ocean in a less than ideal ship. But He would never ask us to do it alone. I think the one thing we forget about faith is, to have faith we have to trust, and to trust we must believe that one is trustworthy. Which means we must understand the character of God. We must allow Him to accompany us on our journey so that when it comes time to cross that river, we can trust that He will anchor our feet and lead us forward.
You might ask, how?
‘How can I trust Him? I’ve been drowning for years, it only gets darker— harder to breathe. I thought I understood who God was. I wanted to believe that He had not abandoned me… but I feel so alone. None of this makes sense. All of it feels like a cruel game.’
Faith is easy to define. It’s easy to tell someone to ‘just have faith,’ or, ‘it’ll get better, you’ll see.’ When the truth of the matter is, having faith goes deeper than simply believing that everything will work out— that everything will get better. Having faith in God is developing understanding. Not in the sense that you’ll suddenly be aware of why things are happening, though some clarity may come. It’s developing an understanding of God.
Hebrews 6:17-20
“Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 12: 1-2
“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There are two themes in these passages that tell us more about who God is— he is unchangeable, and he is the perfecter of our faith. One of the characteristics that makes God who God is, is He is resolute: admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering. (Merriam-Webster) When God makes a promise we are to know that He will keep that promise.
According to the book, Without Wavering by Alexandra Hoover, “Jesus is the answer to the promise the Old Testament saints kept their eyes on, and He is the ‘something better’ available to us… God is not like us; He doesn’t overcommit or fail us. He doesn’t overextend love; He freely gives it, never running out. And He is faithful to keep all His promises (Ps. 145:13). Jesus is our assurance of that, and He is the One on whom an unwavering faith is built. Because without Him, we have nothing.” (pg. 31-32)
Once you begin to understand who God is you learn more and more about how He is trustworthy. It is on His trustworthiness that the foundation of our faith can be built. We may not always know or understand the reasoning. But one thing we do know is God has given us an anchor in His son Jesus. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Hebrews 6:19.
In order to whether the storm— to sail an un-sailable ship— we must hang on to that truth. It’s during those trials, those heartbreaks, and times of darkness that we must listen for that still, quiet voice and understand that we are not alone. In the midst of the storm, He is at constant work on our hearts— shaping and molding us into His image.
Faith is strengthened by the resilience we acquire through tribulations. It would be easier to stand on the bank of the river and watch our lives pass us by. It would be easier to let the current of the world carry us wherever it desired. But then we would miss out on the wonder, the beauty, the power of God. We would miss His comfort, His strength, and be blinded to the ultimate promise He has already fulfilled for us.
“For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
The next time you feel as though you are drowning, and your faith feels like it will crumble beneath you, remember who it is who built the foundation and trust that He will guide your hands, so that you may continue to build impenetrable walls.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4