Faith Can Fix Anything?

One of the things that Christians mistakenly believe is that faith can fix anything. We say things to people like, “If you have enough faith … it will happen”.
• “If you have faith everything is going to work out.”
• “If you have faith God is going to heal you.”
• “If you have faith God is going to protect you.”
• “If you have faith God is going to protect your children.”
• One of the things that a lot of Christians used to say and actually believe is, “it’s because you don’t have enough faith that you got cancer – or some other dreaded disease.”

None of those statements are Biblical and none of them are true but many Christians believe they are true. The statements (and there are more) are what Larry Osbourne calls, “urban faith legends.” There was a period in time when scientist convinced people who earth was square. They believed the ships they saw disappear fell off the earth. In reality, they were either shipped wrecked or they found a new place to dock and didn’t know how to get back.  A guy named Capernicus (and some others) came along and said, “no, the earth is round.” Well, he was considered a heretic for suggesting such a thing. Now, if you believe the earth is square people will consider you a little loony. The “square earth” was just a legend. People simply believed it because …. well …. they were told to believe it.  An urban faith legend  like “faith can fix anything”  starts when someone says some words in Sunday School or in a small group a or God forbid heard a preacher preach it a number of years ago and people started to believe it and a lot of other people began to believe it and all of sudden we call it “truth” because …. Well …. Everybody believes it so it must be true.

The truth is faith can’t fix anything.

We have made faith (according to Larry Osbourne) a mixture of intellectual and emotional control, when properly harnessed, can literally change the outcome of a situation through positive thinking and clear visualization. Successful people tout this as a key to their achievements, what survivors of great tragedies cite as the source of their endurance, what televangelist credit with healing power, and what motivational speakers make a sweet living telling others at conventions.

Faith is not a skill we can master if only we try harder.Faith is not a shield that will protect us from life’s hardships and trials. Faith is not a magic potion that removes every mess. Faith is not something that if we had more of it we would be a better Christian. The scriptures teach that we only need a mustard seed of faith.

The root word for faith in the English Bible is the same root word used for belief and trust. The kind of faith the Bible advocates and that God wants from us has far more to do with our actions than our feelings. Biblical faith is so tied to actions of obedience that the Bible ridicules the very idea of someone claiming to have faith and not acting on it. (Larry Osbourne)

Let’s look at a couple of verses that help us understand what faith really is:

Hebrews 11:1 – Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”

Is faith going to save this boy life? Is simply believing that his father sees him going to save his life? What’s going to save his life? HE HAS TO JUMP and trust this father even though all he can do is hear this father’s voice.

You can’t separate faith, belief, and trust. We try to but the Bible doesn’t separate them. They all come from the same root word. Like we learned in the last blog entry…. Deciding to follow Jesus and actually doing it are two different things. Deciding is just an intellectual process. It doesn’t mean you have faith. Faith comes when you jump!

If you look at the rest of Hebrews 11 you read about men and women who took a jump. You read,  it was “by faith so and so did this”, It was “by faith so and so did that”. These people lived in the assurance that God could see what they couldn’t see and they jumped. Just because you jump doesn’t mean there will be a happy ending. Many of these people who jumped were tortured, beheaded, sawed in two, laughed at, killed with the sword, and stoned.

We tend to equate faith with happy endings. Just because you jump and live in obedience doesn’t mean there is always a happy ending. These people jumped with the assurance that their Father was going to catch them and not with the assurance the Father would protect them. God has never protected his people from harm. He has always expected obedience.

Hebrew 11:39 reminds us:

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.

What’s the point in putting our faith in God if we there is the possibility that I won’t receive all that God has promised. Faith is not based on whether or not God keeps his promise. The truth is God always keeps his promises but we might not get to see that promise fulfilled. The people who we read about in Hebrews 11 had great faith but did not receive all that God had promised.

Putting your faith in him is still trusting him when he doesn’t heal your loved one. Putting your faith in Him is still trusting him when you don’t get the job you wanted. Putting your faith in Him is still trusting him even though you don’t get that raise you have been praying for. Putting faith in Him is still trusting Him even when you are going through tough circumstances.

I worked with a single parent family in my student ministry days. This single mom was an incredible lady. She wasn’t a single mom by choice. Her husband was mentally unstable due to some chemical imbalances in his brain. Even when they were married, she basically raised the kids on her own. After being treated for these imbalances for a couple of years, he passed away.  She never gave up her faith in Jesus, even though everything around her was collapsing. She wanted good things to happen. She wanted her kids to be happy and have a happy life. She wanted to have a husband who would love her and care for her. She kept following Jesus. She kept seeking after him. She kept asking me question after question, “why, why , why?” I kept saying, “I don’t know” but we (the church) will walk through it with you.

You may have doubts or we might be convinced that all is lost. Doubts and discouragement are part of the journey of faith. Doubts and discouragement are a great indicator that you are coming to the realization that you don’t have control and that you need help! This single mom cried out for help. Her husband failed her. One of her kids caused her all kinds of grief but she never stop trusting, she never stopped believing, she never stopped crying out to God.

Despite what we see, despite the circumstances we might be in, despite the doubts, all we need is a mustard seed of faith to follow God’s instructions. We are the one who create the emotional mountains not God. We are the ones who say it’s impossible – not God.

Matthew 17:20 reminds us:

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

That statement is true …. “we don’t have enough faith” but all you need is the faith of a mustard seed.

So how do you get the faith of a mustard seed? Trust that what He says is true! This is what children do.

Children have the faith of a mustard seed. When a child says I’m sorry  the other kids believes him and they go play. A child trust his parents. That’s all they know to do. A child trust the adults around them to protect and help them.

Read the about the faith of this little boy.

David, a 2-year old with leukemia, was taken by his mother, Deborah, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman’s prognosis was devastating: “He has a 50-50 chance.” The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain–the mother’s ordeal can be almost as bad as the child’s because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap–a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. “If it hurts, remember it’s because he loves you,” Deborah said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, “Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting.”

How do they do that? I believe they trust. He trusted his mom. He trusted his doctor. The two-year old was totally helpless – all he could do was trust. Trust is jumping in knowing the Father is going to catch you. 

James 2:14 says this,

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?

Many consider faith just positive thinking. If we think positively enough God will see it our way and when it doesn’t happen the way our positive thinking said it should happen, we get angry at God or the pastor or a Christian friend because God failed them.

This verse in James tells us that faith is action. Faith is not hoping something happens. Faith is making hope happen. 

You can believe in God and not have faith. You can believe in God and not trust Him. 85% of the people who live in the USA say they believe in God. Satan believes in God. But he doesn’t put any faith or trust in God.

What separated these people out from the rest in Hebrews 11 was their action. They jumped in trusting the voice of their Father. 

We can say we believe in God all we want. We can say we have faith in God all we want. But if there is no action that follows …… well …. We are just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal that’s making a bunch of noise for no reason at all.

Faith can’t fix anything but what you do with your mustard seed of faith can move mountains.