Every time I get on an
airplane to travel, whether for business or pleasure, I am placing my faith in
the ability of that airplane to stay on the ground when it’s supposed to, to
stay in the air when it’s supposed to, and to come back down to the ground when
and how it’s supposed to. That’s saying
a lot given that I choose each time to sit inside a machine that weighs about
220,000 pounds, travels about 500 mph, and does that at about 35,000 feet above
the ground.
Faith is an interesting thing
… dare I say, we all have faith. The
question is, in what or who do we have that faith? But there’s a more important question … that
we’ll get to in a moment.
Reading this week through Hosea
8 – 14, Psalms 143 – 149, and Jeremiah 44 – 50, there were some recurring
themes. In one respect, one of those was
encapsulated in a passage in Psalms 146 … verses 3 through 6 …
Don’t put your confidence in
powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their
last, they return to the earth, and
all their plans die with them. But joyful are those who have the God
of Israel as their helper, whose
hope is in the Lord their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He
keeps every promise forever.
So
back to my earlier questions … one matters much more than the other in my
estimation.
First
is, in what or who do we have faith? We
all have faith in something … in our intellect, in science, in hard work, in
our friends, in our family, in our professional experience, in our training, in
horoscopes, in karma, in good luck. No
matter what, we have faith in something … perhaps multiple somethings.
The
WAY more important question, however, is … is the something in which we have
faith worthy of that faith?
My
faith in the airplane stems from evidence of its faithfulness. Not necessarily evidence I personally see or
that I understand conclusively. I won’t
have reviewed the design documents, manufacturing records, maintenance logs or
other evidentiary matter. I can, though,
rely on the fact that others have, and that the evidence has been personally
experienced by others sufficiently to reliable pass that evidence along. Now, if I were aware that all that evidence
pointed to the unreliability of the airplane to do what it was designed and
intended to do … and still exercise faith in it … that would be the pinnacle of
foolishness.
That’s
effectively what we have in the Psalms 146 passage. It says, “don’t put your confidence [or
faith] in powerful [or otherwise] people.”
Why? Because not only is there a
lack of evidence of worthiness of faith, but history and our personal
experience would declare assuredly that there is incontrovertible evidence that
people are not worthy of faith. Not to
disparage anyone reading this, but let’s face it, from the beginning of time
(Adam and Eve) and ever since, one thing we’ve got conclusive evidence of is
that people are not trustworthy.
Sinfulness (manifested in innumerable detrimental traits) translates
quite clearly to unworthiness of faith.
In this sense, I’m talking just about relationally, let alone from the
point of view of fulfillment or salvation.
On
the flipside, God is the apex of faithfulness.
Among the innumerable reasons that validate this assertion are that, “He
made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever.” The Bible gives us ample evidence to rely on
putting our faith in God … much the same as trusting the airplane after
reviewing design and manufacturing documents, etc. Moreover, unlike most of us who won’t review
the airplane documents, we have the ability to review all the verification
documentation we could ever hope for in God’s inspired Word, the veracity of
which (while not the topic of this message) is irrefutable for those who
investigate it with an open mind and willing heart.
Putting
our faith in powerful people … or just people in general … happens in a variety
of ways. Simply put, anytime we place
anything in importance over God … whatever it is inherently has our faith. Where we go or what we do when things get
rough provides a good indicator as well.
How we spend our time when we have extra time can provide a look. To what or whom we attribute credit when
things go well (e.g., ourselves) is a good indicator. I want to make sure that last point isn’t
overlooked … even when we have faith in ourselves over God, that faith is
poorly placed. Huh??? That’s right folks … we can’t even trust
ourselves and the evidence is conclusive on this fact.
When
we place our faith in anything but God, we are by definition NOT putting our
faith in God. It would be like walking
up to board a plane that is missing its flaps and wings, and with a huge hole
in the fuselage … and still boarding the plane. All the evidence would point to doing anything
but flying on the plane.
The
question isn’t whether or not we have faith … the key question is in what
is our faith placed, and is our faith placed in something worthy of that
faith. Our faith can be sincere, but
sincerely wrong. Whether we want to
accept it or not, we need to acknowledge that we are sinful and not worthy of
faith in ourselves … nor is any other person.
If we really look deeply we will see it … trust me, I have plenty of
substantiation of being unworthy of my own faith … or yours for that matter.
God
created everything including you, me, and everyone who’s ever existed. He created the universe, the heavens and even
our dinky little planet. On top of all
that, His Word proclaims that He keeps every promise forever. In short, He is the ONLY person or thing
worthy of our faith, and all the evidence confirms it. Anything short of all of our faith is lack of
faith. Let’s ask Him in prayer to reveal
to us anything or anyone that we are trusting rather than Him … and further ask
Him to do whatever He must to help us redirect our full faith in Him.
Confidently
trusting Him … and only Him,
MR
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