Christian Living

New Faith

by Stephen Kimball 
06/01/16
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As the moon orbits the earth, its appearance changes. At times, it appears as just a sliver, other times it’s full. During a “New Moon” when the moon is in-between the earth and the sun, it cannot be visualized at all, but just because we can't see it doesn’t mean it's not there. Just as the moon waxes and wanes as to the degree of visible light we observe, so too our faith can wax and wane with the degree of spiritual “light” we see.

It is true, faith is a gift from God (Eph.2:8-9, 2 Peter 1:1, Philippians 1:29, and Acts 3:16). Once you are the recipient of saving faith, you possess it – it’s part of you, whether you sense it or not. Like the moon, faith can wax and wane because it is essentially a hope – our belief in things unseen (Heb 11:1). And a hope, by its very nature can be strong at times and weaker at other times based on circumstance. At the beginning of every football season, I hope and believe that the Dolphins are going to make it to the Superbowl. If they win a few in a row, my belief level waxes and when they begin to lose, it wanes. Now the differences are obvious: first, unlike God, my team will fail me and secondly, my plans are not perfect, righteous and holy. The point is that our hopes, whether they are temporal or spiritual can wax and wane based on how circumstances are lining up according to our plans and desires.

This is why the doctrinal foundation of the sovereignty of God is so important. If you don’t believe that God is in control of everything and has your best interest at heart, then you will never experience more than just a sliver of faith. Growing in our faith takes a measure of trust and vulnerability in prayer. On the one hand, one must ask in order to receive, so if you don't bother to ask for anything you will never receive anything outside of your own power and ability and your faith will not increase. The other side of the coin is that vulnerability is risky. You set yourself up for disappointment if you don’t have the correct perspective – that life is tough but God is good. We must embrace the idea that God doesn’t exist to make our lives go along the way we had planned, necessarily. Sometimes His answer to our request is “no” and we must accept and trust that His answer is ultimately for our good and His glory. If we don’t have this as our foundation we will be driven from a life of meaningful prayer and a growing faith. This low view of God – doubting His sovereignty, is often the root problem when a Christian is mired in a weak, anemic and ineffectual prayer life.

Where does this solid foundation come from? Ultimately, the transformation from self-sufficiency to dependency and trust in God is a work of the Spirit. It’s our humanness, our pride and our desire for independence that creates roadblocks to transformation. In fact, there is a direct relationship between our pride and our prayer. The more our pride and self-sufficiency increases, the less we pray with any real measure of faith. Conversely, the more we pray, the more dependent on God we become. Remember, faith is a gift from God and like the moon cannot be removed, but it can and will remain "New" if we do not exercise it through fervent prayer, study and obedience to God’s Word.