Lesson 10: Trusting a God We Can’t See (part 2)

Read: Luke 16:19-31 - www.bible.com/bible/59/luk.16.esv

We learned about extremes of belief about our faith in God in lesson 9, and continue today.

We must actually have faith, it must actually exist in us. Thomas did not have faith when he made the statement in John 20, he only wanted to see. In our Christian culture we do the same thing, we sing songs like "open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus." We'll only believe what we can actually see. Now, since we cannot see Jesus today, we often look for visions or dreams or other supernatural manifestations to help us see Jesus. This is not faith. Jesus answered this type of belief with His story about Lazarus who had died at the gates of the rich man's house and then the rich man also died (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man, after realizing he was dead, wanted Lazarus to be returned to his home to tell his brothers they were going the wrong way. Abraham told the rich man if his brothers did not believe what Moses had written – in other words, the Bible – then they would not believe even a dead man coming back to tell them otherwise.

There is another song which says it right, "believing is seeing God as He is." Jesus told His listeners if they could not believe by reading God's word, then no other proof would be satisfactory either. If we can't see by believing, then we won't believe by seeing. Don’t get me wrong and think I’m saying visions and dreams are wrong – but we should not be seeking them as a proof or source of what God is saying to us. Our proof or source must always be Scripture.


The other side of this pendulum swing is questioning faith by its results. This is answered by emphasizing "in God" in Jesus’ command. If we look at the quest of those who "name it and claim it" we find the central question is the quality of their faith. In other words it is their faith, or faith in themselves, which defines successful faith. A common verse quoted by these individuals is Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Their emphasis is on "I." One Christian writer says some believe faith is a power we possess to create our own future. But this is a lie, a deception. Faith is not a power which you possess to create your own future. Instead, faith is a God-given ability to trust in the future God has promised you. God never intended us to have the power to do anything we wanted, He gave us the power to do what He asks of us according to His plan. We are to seek His kingdom above anything else, including all our little "faith" projects. If we really look at them, these are usually projects to make our pretty little lives in our pretty little towns and our pretty little churches more comfortable for us – they have nothing to do with God's kingdom agenda.

*What are you praying for this week – for your own needs or God’s kingdom?