Faith and Ashes

Faith and Ashes

Photo by Bgrace

I find that the temptation to bypass faith on the way to sanctification is quite strong at times. It might seem the humble path to choose.

It’s not.

Bypassing faith is a path which we deviate to out of weakness, not strength.
Sometimes, when what God has revealed to me is very difficult to trust, to accept as true, to enter into a place of waiting and submission for, to continue to believe through all the circumstances that pass by “in the meantime”…sometimes I say to myself, “It’s not important if I believe it or not, what will be will be, as long as I am moving forward in the process of sanctification, I’m in the will of God.

This is the question I must continue to raise in my journey:
Do I make my choices…to believe, to act, to wait, to pray, to release, to lay down, to continue on…out of weakness or strength? Faith or doubt?
And it's easy to start thinking...it doesn't really matter what I believe about what God said and if it was God or not. I'll just focus on the basics...like loving people and becoming holy.

As if faith is not part of the process of sanctification.

As if faith is not the very foundation of sanctification.

Without faith we do not have the grace we need for obedience.

“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Romans 1:17 (Also check out Romans 3-4 and Hebrews 11)

And most often, this journey through faith is a very lonely one.
No one can have faith for us. But they can encourage us.
As those we love wrestle toward God, what does it look like to love them?
Are we sitting on the sidelines, apathetically watching those who are walking up steep hills and swimming against strong currents? Do we find it very easy to place loose data in our grids, weigh all the possibilities, and come up with the pros and cons, the likely or unlikelihood of the matters at hand? Are we a bit too comfortable in (oh so innocently) just asking questions? Or worse, do we come up with “logical” possibilities and oversimplified explanations?

Do we find it easy to be condescending towards those whose journeys we don’t understand? Have we become jaded?


Why does it always seem easier to cast shadows of doubt than encourage others in their faith?
Faith never comes easy. It always come through trial. Those who have passed through are forever marked. Once one has experienced a deeply carved path of faith it leaves them with a kindred reverence and gentleness for another in its throes. Are we aware of how painful it can be to be challenged with ambiguities that can’t be answered?

How much do we resemble Job's friends?
Job's friends were actually speaking truth. The law teaches that when you do good you are blessed, and when you do evil you are cursed. So the obvious conclusion for Job's friends was that Job did evil.

Job knew that this was the teaching of the law, and yet, in his heart, he knew that he had not sinned. There was an ambiguity. Something that should have been clear and made sense, and yet it didn't fit. Job couldn't apply the law to his circumstances. And he did not agree with his friends. He had instead to seek answers from God Himself.
Yet this is the very nature of faith, is it not? To believe what cannot be seen? And how horribly heavy is the pressure to cave? In the innocent guise of asking questions, is the casting of doubt what is really being accomplished?
I wonder in whose image we are asking questions?
Do they sound like the Snake’s question in Genesis 1?
“Did God really say…?”

The longer I’m in this journey of faith the more I see the Snake’s great question is his greatest weapon against obedience. I think Eve would agree. Obedience caves when there is no faith to sustain it.
Sanctification is not possible without faith because sanctification must be worked out in us and through us in faith and obedience to God and in relationship with the One who saves us and calls us and purposes us for His Kingdom and glory.

I’m not saying we take everything that crosses our paths as the Word of God, and that we believe we’ve understood it all at first glance. I am saying that it is incredibly important that we seek God out in it, that we ask Him to help us sift it and glean from it what He desires. Then follow where He leads us. That is a very delicate process in the life of any Saint.

We aren’t doing anyone any favors by playing the devil’s advocate.
It might be exactly what we end up becoming.
Are our questions helping someone to find clarity, or are they undermining the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of another?
You never know, the person we are trying to help just might be learning Job’s lessons.
Whose part are we playing in that story?