Sure-footed Faith

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” (Ro 4:20-21 AV)

 

Staggering is the first step in falling.  One can keep one’s footing sufficient to get to where one is going all the while staggering.  It will take longer and the line of walking will not be straight, but the traveler will arrive.  That is unless he falls.  Above, Paul references the faith of Abraham who trusted God without any doubt that He would provide a seed from which a nation would grow.  In particular, Paul is referencing the promise of God that Sarah would be found with a child even though she had passed the age of bearing as proof of Abraham’s unshakable faith.  There was zero doubt in the heart of Abraham that God would bless the fruit of Sarah’s dead womb and they would have a son.  This really is the point of exercising faith.  It is meant to be exercised with no staggering.  Faith is meant to be fully persuaded.  Faith is not meant to waffle.  Faith is not meant to take the best possible option and hope for the best.  But I fear that is where most of us are.  We are not fully persuaded.  We stagger at the truth of God’s word.

This past weekend, during our door-to-door soul-winning ministry, we came upon a roofing crew.  My memory went back to the resent re-roofing we had done at church.  The roof at our church is considerably steeper than a normal roof.  I cannot tell you the exact pitch, but I can tell you it is more vertical than horizontal.  From my simple calculations, I would have to say the roof is a sixty-degree pitch.  To add to the difficulty, if one were to fall off the roof, it is twenty-something feet to the ground.  This job was not for the timid!  Our house, which is the parsonage, is the same pitch.  We hired a company to do both roofs.  I watched them for a bit.  They were very safe.  They wore harnesses and had themselves secured if they happen to lose footing.  Watching them, and even while I am writing this with the picture of it in my mind, my hands are getting sweaty.  Something I noticed while watching these men.  They were not timid.  They were sure-footed.  They did not hesitate to traverse that roof.  They did not stagger.  As they stripped and then reroofed, they worked methodically and logically.  Being tied off and having every confidence in the safety measures put in place, they were able to go from one end of the roof to the other as though they were walking on level ground.  No doubt, if they staggered, they might have fallen.  If they staggered, the new shingles would have been laid in a haphazard way.  The roof would have not been installed perfectly.  There could be no staggering.  They had to have full assurance.  Otherwise, the job could not have been done or someone might have gotten hurt.

Abraham did not stagger at the promises of God.  He did not come up with exceptions why the promises of God may not come to pass.  When we look at the father of faith, we see a man who lived his life in the reality of a future promise.  He didn’t need the promise to come to pass before he had faith.  He lived as though whatever God said was a foregone conclusion.  He did not look for an escape clause wherein he could bail on the promises of God.  One of the reasons we do not have as smooth of a spiritual or emotional life is we lack concrete faith in the word of God.  We stagger.  Like a drunk who tries to walk a straight line, we see the absolute before us.  The line is straight.  The line is not up for interpretation.  The line was there before we ever got there.  But we begin to doubt where that line will take us.  We overthink the line of absolutes and we question our own judgment.  We cannot walk a straight line of faith because we lack the faith to yield to it.  Abraham did not stagger.  He walked across that sixty-degree pitched roof in a straight line as though he was walking down the sidewalk.  Eyes forward.  Confidence in the character of God and the dependability of His word.  He had full assurance no matter what his observations may have said otherwise.  God can and should be trusted.