For ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters. -Mosiah 3:9b RAV, 5:7c OPV
The third key word: In. What is the basis of your faith? Where does it come from? In Hebrews 1:1 Paul tell us that “faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.” And there are many that would declare this means we must simply have faith with no proof, that asking God for proof is somehow a sin.
Yet our God is a personal God. In Genesis 16:13 Hagar calls God “El-Roi,” which is to say, “the God who sees me.” David, in Psalm 23:1, states that the Lord is his shepherd. Shepherds are very aware and have a great love for their sheep. In the New Testament Jesus is the Shepherd of Israel. We are his sheep.
What Paul was actually telling the Hebrews to find that unexplainable truth burning inside us that can only come from God. It is not a guess or a hope. It is pure knowledge that is given to us From God through the Holy Ghost, in the spirit of prophecy and revelation.
Remember what the angel said to John in Revelation 19:10, “Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” That is not hope for something unseen, it is an understanding that is beyond human comprehension that can only come from God. God wants a real relationship with you, one that is intimate, permanent, and personal. God wants you to feel safe because of the connection of mutual trust between you and God, as we see between God and Abraham.
Amy
Another individual I have worked with, we will call her Amy, told a story of how God saved her parents from what she felt was certain death. She believed that God knew how much her parents dying would hurt her and so believed that God spared them so that she would not feel pain.
Her faith crisis came when her parents later died, suddenly and unexpectedly. She did not understand why God was doing this to her. She felt betrayed, abused, and tormented by an uncaring God. Her faith was not in Jesus Christ, in the reality that life would happen to all of us, and that God would be there for her during the pain. Her faith was in an idea, the idea that God would protect her at all costs.
This was and is an idea that could never be realized as it was beyond anything anyone else in this world has or will ever experience. And while it is easy to say, “Jesus suffered on the Cross, He felt pain to help lessen your own pain,” this merely gives lip service to a grieving daughter. Amy had to find the strength to go to God in a new way that allowed her to submit to God’s will, rather than expecting God to submit to her will. And this is a cross all of us as Christians at some point must bear. But we do not bear it alone.
In
I pray that you take the time now to look at yourself closely, asking yourself: What do (or did) you have faith in? And as you ask yourself this, remember that you are not alone. Millions have faced what you are going through. This is why Jesus told us in Matthew 18:20 to gather in His name. Together in Christ we are one, and together in Christ we are stronger. Listen to the stories of others that are going through or have gone through their own faith crisis. Lean on one another in Christ, in our joys and in our sorrows.
God did not place this faith crisis on you to break you. Your faith crisis has come at this moment to define you, the real you that has been waiting for this moment to jump out and reveal themselves. God is not going to test your faith, God is going to prove your faith, not to Himself, God already knows you intimately. God wants you to see in your self the miracle and beauty that God sees. God said when you were created, “It is very good” (Genesis 1:31).
