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Intelligent Faith

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Sep 22, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 38.

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Intelligent Faith

By Daniel H. Kress

D. H. KRESS, M. D.
“Ask, and it shall be given you.” This is God’s promise to all; and what he has promised he is both able and willing to perform.
Why do men so often ask and not receive? The fault certainly is not with God’s promises. If there is any fault, it must be on the human side. It must be due to ignorance or unintelligent asking. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.”
An intelligent faith asks, and always receives what it asks.
In the Bible we have many precious promises. Many see these promises and claim them, unaware of the fact that there are conditions which must be met in order to obtain the blessings promised. Faith will lead a man to comply with the conditions; in other words, true faith will lead to obedience, or will claim the blessing promised, only in God’s way. Many ignorantly or knowingly ignore the conditions, yet talk much of faith. But these ask, and receive not; they may create a few sparks of their own kindling, and imagine they are in possession of the blessing, but sooner or later disappointment will surely come. After several such experiences they become discouraged, and say, as they did anciently, “Wherefore have we fasted, . . . and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge?”
We have promised to us the blessing of health. God wishes above all things that we should be in health. We forget sometimes that the same God has also called our attention to the reforms that are needed in order to receive this blessing. True faith will lead a man to meet these conditions.
Anciently, the people asked for God’s blessing as earnestly as we do to-day, but they did not receive—the curse rested upon them in spite of their asking. Then they said, “It is vain to serve God.” But the conditions had not been met. God said: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, . . . and prove me now herewith, . . . if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” He made known to them the fact that this blessing could not be received by the mere asking—the asking or petition must have in it sufficient faith in the promises to lead to the paying of an honest tithe. Those who possessed sufficient faith to meet the conditions did not say, “It is vain to serve God.”
To pay our tithes and offerings with the expectation of receiving the blessing promised may be branded by some as attempting to obtain God’s blessings by works. But this is not the case;it is merely claiming the blessing in God’s appointed way instead of our own, and an intelligent faith will always lead a man to do this. God has not changed in his dealings with men. He says now, as he said anciently, “I set before you . . . a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, . . . and a curse, if ye will not obey.” It is only the faith that leads to obedience that can claim the blessing.
The works of obedience testify that the faith possessed is of the right kind. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he [met the conditions demanded of him and] had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God.” A faith that will lead to reformation of habits, or a faith that will lead to obedience, in order to claim God’s blessing in God’s way, will never be denied. It will ask and receive. A few experiences in the exercise of such a faith instead of leading to discouragement, will increase our faith in God’s promises.
The true child of faith will cheerfully comply with every condition laid down in God’s Word, and when he has done so, it is his privilege to expect—and God desires him to expect—the blessings promised; for he says, “Prove me now herewith.” This is not an effort to obtain righteousness by works, but the works testify that the faith is genuine. The true child of God in asking for the blessing of health will at the same time diligently seek to bring his habits of eating, drinking, dressing, etc., into harmony with right principles. He will cheerfully make reforms, with the expectation of receiving the blessing of health. This is true faith.
True faith will seek God’s blessing of health in God’s appointed way. Such a faith asks and receives. Faith does not lead to carelessness in these matters. Faith is not designed as an opiate to say “Peace” to those whose habits are such as to lead to sickness and destruction.
A faith, so-called, in God’s promises that leads a person to become careless and to pay little attention to the laws of health, is a suicidal faith; it is the kind of faith Satan tried to have Christ exercise in God’s promises when he said to him on the pinnacle of the temple, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
Let us be content with nothing less than a faith that will lead to a diligent study of God’s Word and the Testimonies of his Spirit in order to ascertain where wrongs exist; where our habits of living need correction. This faith will usher in the time when there will not be one feeble person among God’s people.