More Now
Last night I got the chance to watch an old friend do an hour long concert online. He played some of his old songs and some new ones I had never heard before. He sang a song about seahorses that had me in stitches! While I have been influenced by many in my life, few have a had a greater influence than him. It has been about twenty years since we’ve been in the same room together, but his music is still an encouragement and brings back all the wonderful memories of a time that seems like something from another life.
One of the songs he sang is called More Now. It’s a song that expresses what we have all, more than likely, experienced: having our faith rocked by something, but being brought through it all by the Lord and, in the end, he strengthens our faith in him.
If you are like me, this is not a one time event, and in many ways, it seems to be one of the Lord’s main ways of growing us. Perhaps there are some who think we should never go through times of questioning or doubts, but I am not sure they have ever read the book of Psalms. The Lord can handle my questions and my doubts.
But we ask our questions and bring our doubts to the Lord in faith. In a sense, when our faith is rocked, it hasn’t disappeared, it just shrunk. But though it may have shriveled to the size of a protein molecule, it’s not the size of the faith that matters. It’s the strength of the one that that minuscule faith is holding onto that makes all the difference.
So this morning, I was thinking about ways our faith can be shaken or knocked around and I narrowed this post to three instances when this might happen to us.
Theological Pursuit
Ever read Joshua or Judges and thought, “What in the world is going on?” You are not alone. Ever just thought about the concept of hell and wondered, “Wouldn’t it be better if God saved everyone and let Satan be alone in hell?” Ever wonder why God saved you and not your particular family member or best friend?
These questions and a billion others can cause our faith to shrink and we might wonder, “Is all of this true?”
However, as we pursue our understanding of God, though we may not get all of our questions answered, we begin to see him more clearly. And as we see him more clearly, we see that there is even greater reason to trust him. This doesn’t happen in an hour or even in a few days. This is a workout routine that requires diligence and time for the results to be seen in us.
When people are struggling with their understanding of God, I try to encourage them to keep pursuing. On the other end is a greater and more beautiful picture of Jesus, who strengthens your faith. We don’t stop asking questions, but we do, at some point, stop demanding answers.1
Trial
In More Now, Ross says, “But the day of my trial would come — like an earthquake through my belief.” Suffering and difficulty can be exactly that: a cataclysmic earthquake that breaks the richter scale and shakes us to the core. We experience something that makes us ask, “ Why is God allowing this to happen to me? Why is he doing this to me?” We might even begin to question his goodness: “If God was good, if God really loved me, this would not be happening.”
Few things bring focus and clarity to life, and what is important, like suffering. Trials can reveal weaknesses in our faith or the shallowness of it. And the Lord, graciously, through our trials causes us to persevere and brings us out on the other side. When we get there, we look back and wonder, “How did I make it through that?” Then we realize that the Lord had been walking with us through it all. His promise of, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” is brought home to our hearts.
Through this, the Lord has grown our love and trust for him. We don’t need to go looking for trials and suffering, but we should know that it’s through them that we become more like Jesus. We do share in his sufferings.
Our Own Sin
I have wrecked my own faith at times. Sin is a separator. Sin is the wrench thrown into a well-oiled machine. Sin is a disruptor of relationships. Sin is not only a product of our distorted view of God, it alters our view of him. It distorts who God really is.
Not only does my sin reveal that I don’t believe God is as good as he really is, my sin causes me to hide from him. Why? Well, not only is he not good but he must not be gracious. He probably doesn’t want me to return to him. He’s probably just hoping I would disappear. Now I’m almost right for sinning against him. He deserved it. He is all about himself anyway. Who wants to love and obey a God who is evil, vindictive, selfish, and harsh? I want a God who is good, gracious, long-suffering and loving.2
That’s what’s so crazy about sin! It causes us to lose the true picture of who God is and it rocks our faith in him.
But God, who is rich in mercy, hems me in and brings me to my true senses. However long that might take, he shows me Jesus again, and I see my good, gracious, long-suffering and loving savior.
And what happens?
I grow in my repentance. I grow in my knowledge of his grace and forgiveness. I grow in my knowledge of his gentleness and love for me. I grow in my trust of him. I experience him.
In some ways, that’s really what we are talking about here. We must have an experiential knowledge of God. We must know the great truth’s of God’s word by personal experience.3 In that sense, our faith must be an experiential faith, otherwise it is not true faith. It is God’s grace to us that he uses our experiences to strengthen us in him.
Perhaps today, consider how the Lord has used your theological pursuit, your trials and even your sin to increase your knowledge of, and faith in, him.
Here is the song, More Now, for your listening pleasure.
1 I am paraphrasing Dr. James Anderson who said one time in class something to the effect that, “Faith never stops asking questions, but, at some point, faith stops demanding answers.” Ponder that for a bit and allow that to guide you as you pursue God.
2 I am not saying that this is always our progression or that it is even conscious. I'm trying to convery the darkness, deviousness and ludicrousness of sin, and the hardening effect if can have on our hearts.
3 Joel Beeke, Reformed Preaching, 25. Also, Beeke says that, “Calvin believed that the truth of Scripture is foundational for Christianity, yet truth must be experienced in the form of ‘experiential knowledge’” (p 24). And for clarity, let me add something else he said, “Experience itself does not save us, but the Christ who saves us must be experienced personally as the foundation of our eternal hope” (p 29).