Making choices through faith

When God offers us salvation through His grace, unmerited favour, it is through our faith in Him that we get to actually experience it (Ep.2:8,9). But, as we see in Heb.11, real faith leads us to making serious choices in our life. Unfortunately, what happens many times is that people think they have faith, because they believe certain facts about God, but they don't proceed to order their lives according to those beliefs.

Take the example of anxiety. People believe that God loves them and that He has promised to take care of them. But when they become anxious about something, this belief about God doesn't help them. They say they believe in God and His promises, but they can't understand why they are still anxious.

Sometimes, the idea they unconsciously have in their mind is that since God has promised to take care of them, they should not be in the situation they are in. But since they are actually in that situation, they think they have every reason to be anxious! Some others are looking for an experience where, even when they are in the midst of situations that can make them anxious, God should be helping them so that they should not be feeling anxious. They feel let down by God for not helping them in that way.

But the problem is easy to see. These people have not learnt to use their faith in real situations. They are finding that their faith is inadequate for the situation. The solution is not to look for more faith, but to make sure that they are walking according to their faith. James reminds us that if our faith does not produce action in our life, we must realise that our so-called faith is practically 'dead' or useless (Js.2:26).

So, what can we do when we are anxious, if we have true faith in God? We think of who God is, what He has done for us and others, what He has promised, how we can trust in His wisdom, and how we can trust Him even when we cannot understand Him. Then we make a choice in our mind to hold on to our faith in Him and to let go of our anxiety. In the beginning, it may not go away so quickly, but if we insist on holding on to God, anxiety will finally disappear.

This is important to learn how to choose by faith. When Satan tempted Eve to disbelieve what God had told her, what she did was to make a choice by faith. She chose to believe in Satan and her senses, and gave up her faith in God. It may sound like a harsh truth, but if we choose to agree with our anxiety, we are giving up on our faith in our Father, in that moment. When we see it like this, we will begin to fight anxiety and ask God for help when we see our weakness. But if we give in to our anxiety saying that it is natural or our usual weakness, and not fight against it seeking God's help, doesn't it show that we don't really trust in God in a practical sense?

We may have been deceived in the past thinking that when we have faith, God will do all things for us. But there is a fight of faith (1Ti.6:12).