Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
In helping Nate prepare for his sermon (yes, perks of being an almost-pastor’s wife, I get to pre-read sermons and study with him a lot), I had some time to think about faith and how often confusing it seems. Why is something that seems so crucial and integral to our religion so difficult to understand?
It seems that we talk about it a lot as Christians. We say that we need to have more faith, like it is something that we can manufacture or conjure ourselves. We also say that faith is something given to us, usually a gift from God. We say that faith is something that we have, like it is a possession. We say that we get things “through faith.”
We also have a seemingly concise definition of faith found in Hebrews 11:1. But even after Nate’s sermon this past Sunday when he broke apart this definition of faith almost word by word in the original language, I still feel like if someone asked me to define faith in my own words, I wouldn’t know how to define it.
I think that a lot of the difficulties that we face while attempting to understand intense theological concepts comes down to one simple thing. We are finite beings trying to understand concepts conceived and created by an infinite God! There are often things that I study or wonder about that I have to walk away from because I come to a point in my search for answers where I realize that maybe it is just something that I’m not going to understand this side of heaven. We simply do not have the capacity to understand some of these concepts.
Does this mean that we should stop pursuing truth simply because we know at a certain point we are going to come to a “dead end” of sorts because we keep thinking ourselves in circles? Because our mind is not large enough to comprehend these infinite ideas? Definitely not. There have been many times throughout my life as a Christian where I have taken a break from studying a specific subject, like predestination, heaven, or any multitude of trying subjects. Sometimes, I gave up because I became frustrated at a lack of a concise answer to my question, or really felt that it was just a concept that I was not going to be able to fully comprehend. But at some point, I often come back to these subjects. Maybe because of the prompting of a friend, the Holy Spirit, or reading my Bible, these challenging subjects seem to come up after a period of time. I can truly say that each time I have come back to these subjects, God sheds a little more light on the question that I was struggling with. He uses the Holy Spirit, experiences I have had since I last studied, the people around me, new areas of the Bible I have explored, and many other things to reveal to me more about Himself. I am also confident that He appreciates my desire to learn more about Him, even when I get frustrated and give up sometimes.
So yes, Christians seem to have millions of unanswered questions. And at times, that is frustrating to us all. We want to know and understand everything. It is in those times that I think we need to step back, set down our pride, and remember who the real god, creator, and ruler of this world is. Thankfully, it isn’t us.
Miranda Huyck
Children’s Ministry Director
