Biblical faith much more than wishful thinking

Satisfaction guaranteed.

So often we long to hear those words. We want an ironclad promise that the new job will be perfect, that the pills the doctor gave us will work, that if we do right by others, they’ll reciprocate.

Life is seldom so simple. It doesn’t take us too many years to figure out there really are no guarantees.

That new job occasionally turns out to be a disaster. The most health-conscious people still get sick and die.

And other people, sometimes even Christians, lash out at us unfairly.

That’s why the Bible tells Christians to live by faith – faith in God and nothing else.

Biblical faith has nothing to do with wishful thinking about things turning out the way we want. In fact, to have hope in our state of affairs often sets us up for major disappointment, if not a crisis of belief.

Hebrews 11:1 says: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Following that verse is a long list of faithful saints, people such as Abraham and Sarah, Noah, Jacob and Moses.

Each of their lives testifies to the faithfulness of God, in good times and tough times. These folks all encountered immense challenges in life: persecution, deprivation, ridicule. Yet they continued to believe in the promises of God even though what they could see right in front of them gave little assurance.

Clearly what they hoped for was not merely better circumstances. Instead, they hoped for the fulfillment of God’s promises to them.

Sure, they made mistakes along the way, but they were considered righteous because of their faith in God. Their hope was not a one-time commitment but a lifestyle of hope in God’s promises.

Today, we have the same hope. We have the promise of God’s love, forgiveness, peace and presence. We have the promise of God’s ultimate victory over evil.

Above all, we have the promise of heaven through faith in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in those promises? Does that belief show up in the way you live?

Romans 11:17 says, “… The just shall live by faith.”

Sometimes when there is a crisis in faith, we need to be reminded of God’s unwavering character. The Bible says that God is good: “You are good, and do good.…” (Psalm 119:68), “O, taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

No matter what is going on in my life, I can bank on God’s abiding goodness. Never does our God cease being good. That means he is kind, gracious, generous and loving.

Even when his will for us is not the same as our own, we can be assured of his desire to bring about his best in our lives.

So it was with Moses, who spent years tending sheep in relative obscurity, a world away from the pleasures of Egypt, as God prepared him to be a deliverer. Yes, even on Moses’ worst day with those smelly sheep, God was good and had a better future in view.

Moses eventually learned to accept God’s goodness, to walk by faith, not sight.

God is just. He confronts sin with righteous judgment.

Through human eyes, God’s justice sometimes seems harsh, perhaps even arbitrary. But human eyes don’t see far enough. They don’t see that God cannot abide evil, that he knows the heart of man, that he alone is capable of rightly judging every action, thought and motive.

It is because of God’s justice that every person is born under a death sentence. We all have sin in our lives, and a holy God cannot tolerate sin.

God is merciful. What a joy that God’s justice is completely consistent with his mercy – so that sin can be forgiven through faith in Christ’s death on the cross, and his resurrection. We can’t earn that forgiveness. We certainly don’t deserve eternal life.

But it is offered to us nonetheless by God’s grace.

No matter how we feel about something, we can be confident that God is dealing with us mercifully. Lamentations 3:22-24 says: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul. ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’ “

God’s gracious love always flows in abundance. He is always eager to forgive the contrite heart, to restore the wayward soul. I pray you’ve experienced his forgiveness and have hope in him.

So maybe there are guarantees in life after all. God’s goodness, justice and mercy are unchanging. His love, forgiveness, and salvation are promised to all who will accept it.

For Christians, the hope of heaven is as certain as tomorrow’s sunrise.

Don’t expect to always feel hopeful. Faith is not a feeling . It is the certainty of something not yet fully realized.

It is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the Christians’ satisfaction – guaranteed!