Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Fifteen)

Conclusion: Learning and submitting

I can remember learning - but I can't remember where - as a teenager, that actions spring from belief. And it's something that resonated so strongly with me that it has stuck in my consciousness since then. Actions spring from belief. What I believe about things will affect what I do and the way I do it. Or put another way, the way I act is evidence for what I really believe, no matter what I say. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. So I should challenge myself in both directions: Examining my beliefs, how do they affect positively the way I live my life? Examining my actions, are they consistent with what I say I believe? Of course, it's more complicated than that, because we don't know ourselves as well as think we do sometimes. And that's where I often get frustrating inconsistencies in my life, and sin. And that's the way this series about prayer came about, and how it has concluded, but in different ways. 

I think that when I came to James 5:15 last year I knew deep down that God would only grant the requests that He wanted to grant, and therefore there is a possibility that some of our prayer requests are not granted. And therefore I was content (was that rest, though, or resignation? There is a difference, and I confess to oscillating). James 5:15 removed my contentment, because I felt the strain of an apparent inconsistency. "The prayer of faith will make the sick person well." Should I be content? Or should I be holding out for healing for all those sick people that I regularly pray for? Different passages in the Bible appeared to say different things.

But I think that the challenge to put my beliefs into action has become more pressing through the study of the passages I identified. And in rounding off this series I just thought it would be helpful to briefly list all those challenges.

• Ask God boldly for what we need;

• Humbly acknowledge God as our heavenly Father, who knows what is best for us and who loves us, and will give us what is best;

• Pray for what will enable us to glorify our heavenly Father by seeking His kingdom before anything else;

• Pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to fill us more and more.

• Prayer requests are not granted to those who have no faith.

• Conversely, if we have faith in God then we must have boldness to pray for big things as well as small.

• Faithful prayer involves perseverance.

• Praying in Jesus' name means having the glory of God at the heart of all we desire.

• Praying in Jesus' name means acknowledging that we are only able to come to God in prayer through Jesus' death and resurrection.

• Praying in Jesus' name means asking for God to work in our lives to enable us to do the work He has given us - namely, bearing fruit in good works and sharing the gospel with other people.

• Be assured that God is ready to help us as we work for His glory and the coming of His kingdom.

• Don't pray for our own pleasure and self-satisfaction. Pray with God-centred motives and for God-centred motives.

• We see more of our prayer requests granted when we know we pray for things that God wants, as revealed in His Word, and as we understand and align our lives with that more deeply.

• Praying according to God's will means knowing the Bible.

• Praying according to God's will means accepting and rejoicing that God has the final decision in the answer to my prayers.

• Praying with the church is an important and special privilege, giving us even deeper access to the presence of Christ.

• Don't shy away from praying for big and amazing things, not least the raising of a dead soul to life to receive salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Our faith when we pray should be based on our knowledge of God and His promises in His Word, not on our past experiences of answered prayer.

• Praying with righteousness, repentance and confession, in the community of the church, will result in healing… but the full extent of that healing may have to wait until Jesus' second coming.

• Just keeping praying and don't give up.

And of course, those are just the things we learnt about prayer. I'm sure that we also learned a lot of other things as well, such as the importance of caring for the weak and those in the margins of the church, such as the way God assures us of His work in us, and many other things.

One of the things I pray for is that I may never lose sight of all that I've learnt through these studies. 

It is quite moving for me to realise that when I started studying these passages I was just approaching the end of my course of chemotherapy. As I come to the end of this series of blog articles, just over a year later, I am fully fit and have been back in work for six weeks. The Lord has been very gracious to me. Not only have I been "raised up" from my illness, which is amazing enough on its own. But I have felt the warmth of His love through the church. And I've been given the time to study and benefit from His Word, and to share His Word with other people. 

Apart from to urge us once again to never neglect persevering and faithful prayer, my final point is this: God uses our questions and confusions, weaknesses and doubts, to teach us huge amounts more than we ever expect, if we turn to His Word with faith.

It started, if you remember, with simply reading the Bible. Literally, just reading. How many of us miss out on learning all these big things about God and His infinite love for us simply because we don't simply read the Bible?

And then I allowed myself to ask an honest question. My reading led me to some confusion, and into asking questions. And I turned to God's Word to get the answers to those questions.

And all that learning about prayer, and the other things as well, stemmed from that one simple honest question, "Does God guarantee I will be healed if I pray for healing?" It started with weakness and doubt, and the result was a superabundance of encouragement.

I am certain that the Lord will do the same with your weaknesses and doubts, whatever they are. Read the Bible. Allow yourself to ask questions. And turn to the Bible to find the answers. Act on the answers. And the Lord will provide you with an overflowing amount of learning and encouragement.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)

May God bless us and glorify Himself in us.

For the Encouragement of Faithful Doubters - Part Two

Times of doubt

A while ago I wrote to encourage those who are worried that they don't have strong enough faith. I was, to be honest, concerned that my previous reflections may be overly dogmatic, and end up discouraging those who read and say, "I still don't get it!" I don't want to give the impression that I have everything sewn up, and that having everything "sewn up" and solidly grounded is part of the character of saving faith. I want my public reflections to be encouraging and not discouraging.

So I pointed out that nothing can be absolutely crystal clear to us in this life, both because of our finiteness and because of our sinful nature. I showed the examples of those we sometime see as the great men of faith in the Bible, who quite often went through times of doubt and fear. I pointed out that salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ, in having faith, not a certain amount of faith. And I held out the Bible as God's means to lead us into greater knowledge and certainty about the hope that we have, to enable us to grow in faith.

I hope that was helpful, and pray that these reflections will be an encouragement to grow through studying deeply in the Word of God, relying on the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see ever more clearly the wonder and glory of Jesus Christ.

But it also made me think about some of the times of doubt I've had in my own life, and the way that I have been brought back from the brink of unbelief. I admit that when I talk about "the brink of unbelief" that's a little over-dramatic. By God's grace, I have never even temporarily given up my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that doesn't mean I have not had times when I have seriously questioned what I believe, and have times when I simply do not know the answers.

Sometimes I have come across difficult passages in the Bible that I can't make sense out of, and seem inconsistent with other teachings. And I have thought to myself, "What if this isn't true? What if this undermines everything? What if my faith is misplaced?"

Sometimes I have envied the prosperity and "freedom" of those who do not follow God. Like the psalmist, "I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills… always carefree, they increase their wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure." (Psalm 73:3-13) Freedom to be promiscuous, freedom to get pleasure out of life and get what I want without caring about anyone else - surely that would be easier sometimes. Am I restricting my own progress and enjoyment in life because of something that I simply accept from an old book?

Some unbelieving friends may have told me not to be so hard on myself at those times, though they never got the chance because I have always kept these thoughts to myself. You see, many unbelievers admire faith in other people. They see noble qualities, selflessness, love and giving, grounded in a kind of hope and certainty that they simply don't have. They wish they could have that, but they accept that they don't. They would think it a shame for someone to give up such a faith, because they want to believe that it is possible.

I may have mentioned elsewhere how I was intrigued by the film, The Invention of Lying, written by and starring Ricky Gervais. It's what I would call a double philosophical satire. It mocks Christianity, because it wants to make out that God is just a concept made up by people who really want to believe there is something more than emptiness in life. But it also mocks anti-Christian philosophy, because it wants to point out that faith brings about great things and great feelings. The worst position in the world, it implies, is to know for sure that God is a fantasy and yet have to get by in life.

But I just don't get that. For me, either life is something or it isn't. Truth is truth, and I can't change it. If God exists and Jesus is the Saviour of the world then I have to accept that as true. If it's not true, then I must live consistently with that alternative. There is no point living my life as if God exists, and that I can have the hope of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Christ, if it's not true. Paul said the same thing too. He said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Corinthians 15:19) There is nothing noble or praiseworthy about faith in something that is not true. Like the dying man in the desert who staggers on towards the mirage on the horizon, we would be pitiable, not pious.

What are the alternatives?

But what has brought me "back from the brink" time and time again is the emptiness of the alternatives. And this was brought home to me again while listening to John Piper preach on John 6:68 (you can find a transcript of the sermon, and the audio and video, at http://tinyurl.com/2vpvhak).

In John 6, Jesus feeds a huge crowd of people with only five loaves of bread and two small fish. He is then tracked down all the way to the other side of the lake, because this miracle has made him so popular. Condensing the story somewhat, Jesus treats this popularity with contempt, seeing that all the crowd wants is a miracle worker to carry on feeding them. He therefore gives them some pretty strong and difficult teaching, not only about the nature of his person, his mission and the ultimate gift he came to give, but also the inability of man to come to him without God's inner working. "No-one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him," he concludes in 6:65.

The result, we are told in v66, is that, "from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."

Jesus then turns to the twelve who are left with him, and asks them, "You do not want to leave me too, do you?" (v67)

"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.'" (v68) Who else is there to turn to? Every other alternative is empty. To quote John Piper, "'Lord, to whom shall we go?' In that simple question, Peter is saying, We’ve considered it. We’ve allowed ourselves to ponder what it might be like to turn away from you."

In one Christian Fellowship meeting at work, when I worked in Windsor, instead of sharing testimonies about how the members became Christians, we were asked to share the answer to the question, "Why am I still a Christian?" It was a very valuable session, which I think came from the recognition that sometimes maintaining a life of faith as a Christian is hard. How do we do it? In the face of being told day-in, and day-out, in the media, in comedy sketches, by friends, work colleagues and family members, how stupid we are; how repressed we are; how the world's problems are all down to people like us (ref Dawkins and Hitchens, etc al); how we are bigoted, prudish, killjoys; why do we persevere in faith? When we find things in the Bible that we don't understand, when we face hardships that we can't explain, when we see evil in the world, why do we keep going?

My answer was the same as Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" The alternatives are empty, they do not make sense. I've heard what atheist philosophers have to say. I've listened to other religions. Faced with the impulse to be rational, I have put a lot of consideration into that question. And no other alternative works. Far from the Christian worldview being a leap of blind, irrational, faith, it is the only rational choice. Of course, that's just my testimony. It doesn't prove anything. And it does not mean that I just dismiss the problems that I face - in life and in thinking - or that I have every area of life and existence "sewn up". I simply see enough to know that God is real, that I deserve His wrath for the ways I dishonour Him, that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead so that I can have that wrath taken away from me, and that through faith in Jesus I can look forward to a wonderful future when God finally brings an end to this present age. I say to Jesus, "'You have the words of eternal life!' (John 6:68) I trust you. Every other alternative is either empty and hollow, or dishonouring to God. So I will continue to cling to you by faith, even when my tiny, sin-tainted mind cannot fathom the answers to the questions that arise from life."

The main alternative, living in Western culture that has lost its Christian foundations and that is increasingly secular and godless, is the prevailing secular atheism and pluralism. This is where most of my unbelieving friends and family come from when they look at my faith with varying degrees of scepticism (this may be the scepticism of pity, which "tolerates" faith only when it does not impinge on their "freedom"; or it may be the scepticism of admiration, which wants the faith without the restrictions on personal autonomy). And so, whether they like it or not, I feel the pressure to conform and live like them.

The apparent attractions are obvious. Conforming is easy. I wouldn't have to say unpopular things about abortion being the murder of a child; or about homosexual, pre-marital or extra-marital sexual acts being sinful. I wouldn't have to be seen as repressive and prudish in my complaints about what gets shown on TV and in the media. I wouldn't have to offend my friends and family with the unstated implication of my faith, which is the implication that they are sinners (along with me) and are facing an eternity in hell. I wouldn't have to face the laughter of the intelligentsia when I say I believe that the whole universe and the whole spectrum of existence was created by God, let alone that I am one of these terrible fanatics who believes that He did it in six days. Ok, so I would drop out of the support net of the church, which is widely acknowledged as a great force for social good on both a personal and cultural level. But on the other hand I could do my own thing, without worrying whether it's right or wrong. I could choose to follow my own path to my own happiness. I could follow money, or power, or sexual pleasure, or all three! I could save time and mental energy on prayer and Bible study. I wouldn't have to worry if the Bible said something I didn't understand. I could go on with the list of the apparent attractions of secularism.

But having been attracted, and having thought about it, I still call them "apparent" attractions. They are superficial, because when I start to dig deeper and examine the foundations of this secular worldview that appears so attractive, it crumbles. I would have to give up too much in terms of rationality. I would have to live in a world of wishful thinking. Let me give you a brief example.

Atheism, because it denies the existence of God, has to posit an alternative theory for the existence of everything. It normally suggests the theory of evolution. Note that I put it that way. If you look into atheist philosophy it is never put the other way around. So we never hear of people being persuaded there is no God because of evolution being the way everything came into existence. For one thing, evolution is still a theory. It is not a fact, as popular presentations of science would have you believe. People believe evolution because they want to believe something about their origins and the origin of life and existence. If God did not create everything, how did it get here? (There are other basic philosophical questions that we could consider - such as, what is reality or how do we know anything - but I don't want to go on too long.)

Existence (broader than just simply life) is either meaningful or meaningless. Being meaningful or meaningless are mutually exclusive. The atheistic theory of evolution says that every present form of existence has randomly formed over billions of years by a process of mutation and the survival of certain of those random formations. The implication of that belief is that every form of existence is meaningless. It's meaningless in the sense that evolution implies no significant difference between forms of existence. E.g. A human is just a different formation of matter to an elephant or a tree. E.g. Life and non-life are just different ways for matter to react within itself. E.g. Love, hate, good and evil are just different reactions within the different formations of matter. But if it's all randomly formed, then distinctions between formations and reactions are meaningless (by applying the definition - if the distinctions between things don't ultimately signify anything then they are meaningless).

The thing I find empty about today's atheism is the shrug that everything may all in fact be meaningless and with no ultimate significance: lymphoma or good health - equally meaningless; love or war - equally meaningless; care for our children or abuse them - equally meaningless; kill people or heal people - equally meaningless!

And yet everybody lives as if existence has meaning, in that everybody gives significance to things, and to things that happen. What I ask is where the significance comes from, and why do we live that way. If you reject God as ultimately being behind everything, then you are left with randomness, which doesn't give significance to anything. It's at that point that I believe that the Christian worldview provides consistency (living solidly based on belief), but atheism does not (because atheists say there is no meaning, but act as if there is).

And coming back to the point, therefore, I find that I would have to give up too much if I were to give up the Christian faith. I could go for the ease of conformity with the secularism of the age, and give up my allegedly restrictive faith. But I would have to then accept a view that ultimately says that nothing has any meaning, or everything has no meaning. And yet I would find it impossible, honestly, to live that way. Can I see the love of my wife and children as meaningless? Can I see the terror and awfulness of war and oppression as insignificant? Can I cry real tears? Can I feel real joy? Can I have real fun? Can I experience real love? Can I know real guilt? Can I know real forgiveness? I honestly cannot accept these things are unreal, illusory, meaningless or insignificant. And therefore I cannot accept atheism.

To whom shall we go?

And so I am forced back to God, in Christ, where I find real love, feel real guilt, experience real forgiveness, real sadness and real joy. Because He made the world and made me in His image, and that gives me the capacity to understand these things and really feel them. He gives me a concept of sin, judgment and justice which explains the evil in the world. He gives me hope. I find atheism bankrupt. Atheists have to live in a dream world of wishful thinking. As hard as it is to be a Christian, or to understand some aspects of theology, it is the only worldview that makes sense and fits with reality as we experience it.

So don't be afraid to consider the alternatives to Christianity. But dig into the roots. You will find that every alternative ultimately crumbles into a heap of inconsistencies and irrationality. And so you always come back to Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3) and say, with Peter, "You have the words of eternal life!"

For the Encouragement of Faithful Doubters

Some people seem to have rock solid faith. They talk about God, Jesus, and the world, as if they see things with absolute clarity and as if nothing is going to shake them.

This can be disturbing for people for whom things are not so clear. They feel like they only see parts of a jigsaw puzzle. Some things fit together. Other bits are left to the side and don't seem to have a place. Perhaps they see parts of the Christian message really well - they know that God made the universe, they know they are sinners, they love Jesus for dying on the cross for their eternal salvation, and they pray to God as their Father in heaven. But perhaps other things make them wonder whether they are right to believe. Perhaps they cannot understand why the world seems such a cruel place, or how Jesus could have risen from the dead. Perhaps they wonder how God can continue to love them if they keep letting him down, or how God can overlook their sin without being unjust. Perhaps they can't see how God can be in control as the sovereign ruler over his creation at the same time as holding us responsible for our wrongdoing. Bits of the puzzle are all over the table, and they seem to suggest that the bits that they've already pieced together may not actually go together. Perhaps they should start all over again, they sometimes think. And when they see the confidence of others, they are discouraged, thinking that they can only really be faithful and believe if they have finished the puzzle with total clarity.

If you are in this second group of people, then I am writing this for you. I want to encourage you to press on and not to give up.

There is much that could be said, but I will try to be brief. There are basically four points I want you to understand:
• First, that absolute clarity in our understanding of God, ourselves and the world, is not possible in this life, because of sin and because of our finiteness.
• Second, that many of the great men of faith in the Bible were also struck with doubt and fear at times. We should learn from them.
• Third, the important thing is to have faith, not a certain amount of faith.
• Fourth, that the Bible has been given to us by God as our guide, and therefore greater clarity in life will come from studying it carefully. But we should understand it as a guidebook, and not as a map or Lego instruction book.

So firstly, we should understand that finishing the jigsaw puzzle is not possible in this life, because of sin and because of our finiteness.

Consider what God said through Isaiah. "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.'" (Isaiah 55:8-9) The simple fact that we are created, and God is the Creator, means that there are things that we can never fully grasp.

Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." So there are things that we only get to see as a "poor reflection" now, but will be made clear in the future when we meet Jesus face to face.

Sin-tainted, finite, human wisdom is just not cut out for the job of getting to grips with God and the meaning of life. Listen to Paul again. "Where is the wise man? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:20-21) He goes on to elaborate - Jews look for miracles, but we present Christ as crucified - apparently powerless! Greeks look for wisdom, but we present Christ as crucified - apparently absurd! In human terms this is the foolishness of what we preach. But to those whose eyes are opened by God, what we proclaim is, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." (vv24-25)

Let's be careful here. This is not saying that the Christian faith is an irrational leap of faith. I argue that the Christian faith is completely rational, and in fact is the only worldview that does justice to the world we experience - the nature of reality, how we know things and the way we live our lives. What Paul is saying is that when human beings try to use their own intellect to understand God without listening to what he says, then the result is foolishness. But people don't recognize it as foolishness. They have so constructed their worldview that actually the real truth appears to them as foolishness instead.

True wisdom consists in listening to God and seeing things the way he shows them to be. That's why non-Christian worldviews can all be shown intellectually to be foolishness. I believe that. And I don't believe that's arrogant in any sense, since it is founded on the humble assumption of God's transcendence.

But if the Christian faith is so rational, and the arguments are so logical, why do many more people not believe? Paul gives the answer in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ."

The only way we can see the truth properly is if God takes away our spiritual blindness. "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

When God brings an end to this present universe, and brings us into the New Heavens and New Earth as he promised, we will see his light with pure, crystal clarity. Now, we see even this glorious light as a "poor reflection" by comparison. In between now and then we make progress, which too is given by God. We, "are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18) "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16)

So we should not lose heart because we only see a "poor reflection", or because other people seem to see things more clearly than we do. We have been given the "light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ", and this will increase in intensity through our lives until it reaches its perfect fulfillment in eternity. That's why Paul says elsewhere, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Philippians 3:12)

Secondly, we need to follow the example of some of the great men of faith in the Bible who had their moments of doubt.

You've heard of "Doubting Thomas", right? Did Jesus condemn him for faltering in his faith?

"Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came [after he had risen from the dead]. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord!'

"But he said to them, 'Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.'

"A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'

"Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'

"Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" (John 20:24-29)

John the Baptist also had a period of doubt, which you can read about in Matthew 11:1-19. Remember John was the one who baptized Jesus at the start of his ministry, and who called out, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) And yet in Matthew 11:2, we read that he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Did Jesus' answer condemn John for his faltering? No, he commends him, but with a serious encouragement - "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (v6) And then he says that, in spite of this faltering, "Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (v11)

Both Thomas and John were blessed with seeing first hand the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, walking and working on the earth in Palestine two thousand years ago. They both faltered in their faith and yet were accepted by Jesus. But in both cases Jesus pointed forward to those who would be more greatly blessed - the humble people who would believe in him in the future without seeing first hand - you and me!

My last example is one of my favourites, because it is such a great picture of how we feel in times of doubt.

In Matthew 14:22-33, we have the account of when Jesus walks on water. The disciples had gone on ahead of him in a boat, across the Lake of Galilee, and they got hit by a storm. In the midst of the storm, Jesus came walking out to them on the water! To say they were a bit startled is slightly understating the reaction!

Peter, always the hothead, says, "Lord, if it's you… tell me to come to you on the water." (v28) And Jesus tells him to come.

"Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'

"Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'" (vv29-31)

Sometimes we doubt because of stormy situations - maybe hardship, maybe the criticism of others. We should simply cry out, like Peter, "Lord, save me!" And he will reach out his hand and catch us, and then he might just give us a gentle ear-bashing for doubting!

Thirdly, the important thing is to have faith, not a certain amount of faith.

Admittedly, it is a bit imprecise to talk about having a certain size or amount of faith. But Jesus talks like that. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus tells his disciples that great things can be achieved, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed." I mentioned above one of the many occasions when the disciples were rebuked for being of "little faith".

Theologians have tied themselves in knots over the implications of this. How much faith is necessary to be saved? Does that mean there are some things that are essential to believe for salvation, and other things are optional? Or rather, are there some things that it is ok to disagree about, or have doubts about, without calling into question the salvation of a person? But the problem with that way of thinking is that it can give us excuses to avoid repentance. If we say that only certain core truths are necessary to believe for salvation, then it may give us the mistaken impression that we can just choose those and believe whatever we like about everything else.

I don't want to go off here into a huge tangent about the nature of saving faith. There is a necessary place for that, but probably not here.

At the risk of over-simplifying, however, we should see saving faith more as an attitude worked out in actions, rather than intellectual agreement with a set of propositions. Intellectual agreement is part of the story, but not all of it. The attitude of faith is one of trust and love, and this is worked out by persevering in holiness and loving other people.

You may be worrying that your faith is not strong enough to carry on and see you through to salvation. But friend, thankfully the strength of our faith in our own perception is not what is important. Jesus Christ already went to the cross and achieved your salvation. And it is that that assures you of eternal life, even though you are a sinner. We ought to learn that faith is not something that exists within a vacuum. Faith is a belief and hope in someone. And our faith is in Jesus Christ, who bought our salvation for us with his blood on the cross on a particular Friday two-thousand years ago.

As an illustration – and all illustrations have limitations – picture several life rafts floating in the middle of the ocean after a big cruise ship has sunk.

In one of the boats, the occupants lost hope the moment they got into the water. They managed to salvage a few crates of vodka into the dinghy before the ship went down. And they set about drinking themselves into a stupor so that they don’t have to think about their predicament. They don’t know about the international coastguard, and they can’t be bothered with the distress beacon that they can simply switch on. Very soon they are unconscious and dehydrated and they die before the helicopter arrives.

However, the people in some of the rafts have started their distress beacons, sending out signals for someone to come and rescue them. They have recognised their need, and they have called out for help.

In one of those boats, the occupants are experienced sailors and know what is happening to the distress beacon, who is hearing it, and whereabouts they are in the world. They know that the beacon is being picked up, because they have some knowledge of the international coastguard and something about the technology of the beacon. They know what will happen when the distress beacon is heard. They know the sort of helicopter that will arrive, and roughly how long it will take it to reach them. And they’re planning their consumption of food and water in preparation for their rescue. They have such confidence that they immediately set the distress beacon going and set about planning for the arrival of the rescue helicopter.

In another of the boats, the occupants are scared and sea-sick, tired and irritable. They have started their distress beacon because they saw the people in the other boat do it, and it seems like the right thing to do. But they keep arguing with each other over when the helicopter is going to turn up, and what it’s going to be like in the helicopter, and some days they feel like they are never going to be rescued. Some of them are not even sure that anyone is hearing this distress beacon - I mean, it’s a mysterious radio wave that they can’t even hear, so how do they really know anyone is picking up the signal, hearing it, understanding it and acting on it. But most days they continue to watch the sky for signs of rescue.

And yet none of them were aware that a satellite had already seen and transmitted all the events of the ship sinking, and the rescue ships and helicopters had been sent out before the life rafts had entered the water! Did the strength of faith of the people in the life-rafts affect whether they were rescued or not? No! The rescue had already been assured before the life rafts even entered the water, to all those who would recognise their need of rescue and call out with the distress beacon to the one who could rescue them.

And so it is with Christ. He will certainly save all those who call out to him in faith, recognising their need and asking to be rescued, whether their faith is strong and fully knowledgeable or weak and sometimes doubting. The critical work of salvation has been done by Christ alone – the rescue helicopters have been sent out.

The attitude of faith is that we trust the Saviour, and we cling to his words. We may not understand everything God says, but we trust everything he says. We may not have fitted the entire jigsaw puzzle together, but we trust that he is showing us the picture bit by bit. We trust that even though we falter here and now, we see only the "poor reflection", and we will indeed see clearly later.

That's why I addressed this article to "faithful doubters". There is no irony really. All of us will have some doubts at various times. None of us will be able to fit all the pieces of the puzzle in place and see everything clearly this side of Christ's return. But we are called to be faithful and trust him.

Finally, the Bible has been given to us by God as our guide, and therefore greater clarity in life will come from studying it carefully. But we should understand it as a guidebook, and not as a map or Lego instruction book.

There is a great prayer in the first chapter of Colossians. Paul says to the Christians in Colossae that, "we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…" (Colossians 1:9ff) There is an excellent full exposition of this in A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson. For my purposes in this (not very) short article, I want to point out only one thing.

One of the things that is involved in living a "life worthy of the Lord", and in pleasing him, is "growing in the knowledge of God."

Peter ends his second letter with a similar exhortation: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)

Growth is a necessity. It is part of living faithfully. Jesus also likens his disciples to the branches of a vine. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit…" (John 15:5) We must be branches that grow and bear fruit (see also the full passage, vv1-8).

Two of the main things that God has given us to help us to grow in our knowledge of him are prayer and the Bible.

To grow and be stronger in the faith, ask God: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." (James 1:5)

To grow and be stronger in the faith, use what God has given you already! "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

My final point on this is just a word of caution on how the Bible works in teaching us about God, ourselves and life. I would say that the Bible is more like a travel guidebook, rather than a map or a Lego instruction book!

In our pilgrimage through this life sometimes we wish we had a map. We wish that we had the satellite navigation version of the Bible. In other words it would give us the step-by-step guide to being saved and then a virtually flame-proof route from conversion to heaven. We could then switch off from everything else around us and just follow the voice.

Or we may wish that we had the design drawings for the universe and life, like a Lego instruction book. We want God to lay out before us how everything works, how everything fits together, step-by-step, brick-by-brick. Then we would know how to live in the right way and know what to believe.

But the Bible is not like that. It is full of letters, laws, songs, history, poetry, prophecy, parables, biographies, and so on. Some things we are told explicitly. Some things we are left to work out by implication.

The reason for that is that our lives are not all about getting to the end of the journey, but about the journey itself. We are assured that we will get to the end of the journey, and that the end of the journey will be fantastic. But God has things to show us in this life, while we are on the way - things about himself. He doesn't want us to know about his love in the way that we know Anthony's love for Cleopatra! He wants us to experience it. He doesn't want us to know his glory and greatness in the way that we know the Himalayas and a tidal wave (i.e. remotely). He wants us to experience it. He doesn't just want us to know his forgiveness in the way that we know that King David was forgiven. He wants us to experience it and delight in it.

So the Bible is given to point things out to us, to make us work at understanding God, to show how it has been done before. So it acts more like a tour guide. It helps us to appreciate what we are going to see and experience, and then confirms what we have seen and experienced in the context of God's creation, his love, grace and providence. It is multi-dimensional, showing more than a map or a design drawing could ever do. It works with our experiences and with the Holy Spirit to keep us growing. And therefore it is never a dead book of ancient texts. We will never get bored of it or grow out of it, as it keeps working through our souls day by day, year by year. Sometimes studying the Bible is hard work, but it is always worthwhile. As John Piper says sometimes, "Raking is easier than digging, but you only get leaves. If you dig you may get diamonds." (When I Don't Desire God, Crossway Books, 2004, p126)

Conclusion

OK, so as usual I've made this longer than I thought it would be! I apologise, but I hope that it has helped you and strengthened your faith and trust in our great and loving God. I wanted to encourage people who, though Christians, often see themselves as doubters.

Don't be put off by people who seem to have things "all sewn up", who see things clearly and who seem so confident. I know that I can come across like this sometimes. My confidence is real, but it has not arrived overnight. Neither is it based on exhaustive knowledge or wisdom, or a perfect life. I don't know everything. There are many things I don't understand. I fail time and time again. But "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12)

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)

God bless you.