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Have Faith in God

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 31, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 21.

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“Have Faith in God”

By Percival J. Laird

These words of Jesus, tho oft-times repeated, invariably bring with them a fresh inspiration. How man needs to know of a solid resting-place, a power greater than his own or what he can see around him in the midst of Chinese heathenism. But unless those who profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ, can show that as such they possess this sure power, how can the agnostic, who says God is unknowable, or the atheist, who denies God, be convinced of his strange idea? God desires us to be “living epistles,” and has made provision for us to become the same.
Our God is gracious, loving, merciful, a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God. He is ever faithful in the heat of earthly strife, even tho all seems lost. Just look at the marginal note a moment: “the faith of God”—more than our own weak faith. The Holy Spirit here teaches us to place implicit trust in the Word of God; not continually to be looking within to see if faith is growing, but looking to Him as He stands revealed in His Word, and testing His faithful promises. Then will our faith be strengthened.
God has never failed the weakest, either temporally or spiritually. “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” “Tho we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.” A beautiful story is related of a widow in Scotland, who had been reduced to her last morsel of meal; this she ate. Next morning she lit the fire, got ready the water, and then sank on her knees to make her needs known to God. Ere she had finished her petition, her granddaughter arrived from a distance bringing a sack of meal. As she handed it to her grandmother, she told her she ought to be much obliged to her for bringing it such a long way. The old lady thanked her, and dropping on her knees, said, “Hear my song of praise to the faithfulness of God.” We must have faith in His faithfulness altho we may not always understand His workings. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Peter was greatly surprised when he saw the fig-tree which Christ had cursed, dried up, this because it had “nothing but leaves.” And as he was also alarmed, Christ gave him a word of encouragement: “Whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” Let us have faith in God when He deals with us as He dealt with this tree. God calls for confession as well as profession. However God may try us, punish, discipline, and wither us, under solemn judgment let us still have faith in God.
Perhaps we are self-willed, or it may be we are fruitless for God. The Word of the Lord can bring life from that dead soul. Hold to His faithfulness; He can and will bless you and make you a blessing. Christ’s word to Peter was, “Say unto this mountain, Be thou removed.” “He is faithful that promised,” and “also will do it.” We are so apt to make more of the mountain than of God.
When we think of “the end,” and consequently the evangelization “of the world in this generation,” and look at the scanty supply of men and means, we may well say, “It can not be done.” But let us have faith in God, who CAN remove mountains of difficulty, so that they shall flow down at His presence, not ours; we can not overthrow them, but we may say, “Praise the Lord, here is a fresh opportunity for trusting God’s faithfulness.” Praising God fosters trusting. Put God in His right place, and then we shall be in our own.
Why do we sometimes find it is not easy to trust God and forgive some injury caused? Is it not because we do not live the real prayer-life, one of the chief links to God? In order to emphasize this, let us divide the prayer-life into three parts:
1. Desire. We want something. We know what it is we want. Do we desire to be holy? to live a consecrated life? to be bold and brave to win souls? to be a blessing wherever we go? Then let us pray, tell God exactly what we feel our position to be. True, He knows it already; but He has given us the privilege of telling Him all our trials and difficulties, in short, our mountains. Because He can not misunderstand you, pour out your heart to Him.
2. Believe. It is not faith in prayer—it is prayer offered in “the faith of God.” Do we really, as we offer prayer to God, believe that what He has promised He will, He must perform?
3. Receive. How beautiful it is in the orchard at fruit-picking time, to see little children hold out their aprons to catch the ripe fruit as it is dropped to them. Should we really ask God for anything unless we are willing to receive it? It might, under such circumstances, be a hindrance to us if our prayer were answered. As we pray for the fulness of the Holy Spirit, let us open our hearts and receive Him. God answers prayer the moment He hears in heaven. Yet we often keep Him waiting for the fulfilment in our hearts and lives. He does not wish to keep us waiting. We ask, and do not receive, because we do not take. He says: “Believe that ye have received, . . . and ye shall have.” Therefore “have faith in God.”
PERCIVAL J. LAIRD.
Changsha, Hunan, China.