The Challenge of Faith

When we read the beginning books of the Bible, we tend to forget something very important. God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a homeland where he would provide for them. He didn’t keep his promise the way that anyone would’ve thought he would. We forget that because we know the end of the story. Who would have thought that 400 years of slavery in Egypt would be part of keeping that promise, though? We feel like it’s hard to trust God when he’s not keeping his promises the way we think he should or with the timing we would have.

Take the story of when the Israelites finally got to the Promised Land, for example. They received the law on Mount Sinai and orders for worship. They knew what God wanted from them.  

They sent 12 spies into the land; you know the story. They came back and said, “The land is beautiful! It’s flowing with milk and honey.” That means it could handle cattle and had enough greenery and fruit-bearing trees that there was honey. Ten of the spies then said, “We can’t take it. We’re slaves. We don’t fight. Let’s go back to Egypt. We had garlic, leeks, onions; we were safe there.” 

This is the challenge of faith. 

Now you’d figure that if God sent down 10 plagues and parted a sea in front of us that we’d trust him. No, no, that’s how we operate. No matter what God has done for us, unbelief clings to us like soot. Some people let God save them out of the world, but they never walk in faith and enter into all of his blessings.  

How about you? What is God asking you to trust him with today? Think about what he’s already done for you. Think about what it says that he’s done for his people in the Bible. God is always faithful to his people. 

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:22-26, ESV).

^{Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.}