I believe we can get a clearer picture of what faith is by pointing out what it is not.
There is a clear distinction between faith and presumption:
A presumptuous person decides what he or she wants and tries to twist God’s arm to get it. Oftentimes there is a selfish motive. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)
The devil tried to get Jesus to jump from the temple and presume on God’s protection, but Jesus would not put God to the test. There is a world of difference between faith and presumption.
Faith is not merely positive thinking:
There is natural power in positive thinking. Some unbelievers are able to give up smoking by sheer will power. But there is supernatural power in faith based on God and His Word. New-agers think positive, believers think promises.
Faith is not a denial of the facts:
Denial is often based in fear, not in faith. People are too afraid to face the problem so, like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, they pretend the threat doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, many people diagnosed with cancer are living in denial to their own peril. Denial is running from the facts. No! True faith faces the facts.
Without weakening in his faith, he [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. —Romans 4:19
Abraham, the archetype of faith, faced the facts about his age and physical limitations. I encourage you to face the facts about your situation in faith. Face the facts about your medical condition.
Without weakening in my faith I had to face the fact that I had a disease called Multiple Myeloma which was wreaking havoc in my body. However, at the same time, I had to be convinced too of the truth of God’s Word which says; “...by his [Jesus’] wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Sometimes we have to exercise faith over a period of time before it is rewarded. Abraham had to wait something like seventeen years before Isaac, the child of promise, was born. During the waiting our faith must grow stronger, not weaker. Like Abraham we must become fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. —Romans 4:20-21
This is an excerpt from the book “Going Against Goliath” (How to fight cancer and win) by Philip Robson.
Available from Amazon as a Paperback, Kindle or Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637460317/
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