More on Faith...

Why does faith please God so much and why is faith that which Jesus says He will look for when He comes?

There are a variety of answers to this, but the one I'd like to highlight here is that faith focuses on God, thereby placing Him at the center of any and all situations.

Practically speaking, when I focus my attention fully on something/someone, I can't give attention to other things/people. So when I devote my attention and energy to looking at God and listening to Him in His Word by His Spirit, the flesh with its doubts and fears has to yield.

I think that often we as followers of the Lord Jesus hear something like what I've just said above and immediately conclude that we can't focus on God; we've tried it many times and our minds wander and the inner distracting voices scream all the louder. We come away from a time of trying to devote our attention and energy to focusing on God feeling more like a failure than if we hadn't tried.

I see two major strategies that the enemy uses to keep God's people from faith (focus on God):

1. Convince us to give up altogether; or,
2. Convince us to settle for going through the motions of prayer without fighting to encounter God; we do this in order to soothe our conscience or to impress God and others.

We don't have to take either of these common routes. I believe there is a struggle to get to faith (focus on God) that God is pleased for us to engage in. He isn't displeased with the fact that we have to fight to get our attention fixed on Him; He knows better than we do how weak we are as fallen humans, and He promises that He will be found by those who seek for Him with all their heart (Jeremiah 29).

I've perhaps shared this before, but I often think of this in terms of a small child who cannot walk yet but wants to reach mother. Because Mom is across the room, the baby can't get to her on his own, but what he can do is to reach and cry for her. A good mother doesn't punish the child for wanting her but rather runs to catch him up in her arms; and so if we human parents who are evil have enough care to respond to our children's cries, how much more will the heavenly Father respond to us and our cries for Him?!

I want to encourage you to not give up on "reaching" for faith (focus on God). He delights in every little "reaching" gesture you make towards Him. You may not have a sense of great release and soaring emotions in the moment, but He loves it that you want Him and in due time, you will reap what you are sowing by faith now.

Here's a practical way for you to start, if you need a bit of help:

1. Take a Scripture such as Revelation 15:3 - "Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!"
2. Important next step: ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind and emotions as you take time to focus. You can't focus on God without the help of His Spirit!
   
3. Ponder each phrase, starting with the phrases that speak of Who He is and what He is like: "Lord God the Almighty" and "just and true are your ways" and "King of the nations." These statements about who He is are absolutely imperative to focus on because an understanding of His nature and character is necessary in order for faith to rise and take hold of truth for your particular situation. You aren't dealing with just anyone but with the Creator and Lord and Lover of all creation, including humans. Then meditate on His works and what the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John says about His works.
4. It's important to do some concrete things as you are doing this; write out the phrases and any cross references that may come to you; pray them back to God; sing them to Him directly. You may want to write out your own paraphrase of the verse.
5. This particular verse is the song that the overcomers will sing in the midst of great and terrible judgments that are being administered on the earth by the Lord at the end of the age; we prepare for that day by declaring and singing the same truth now about our own present circumstances and those that we see all around us. So I would suggest that you say/sing this Scripture over your own circumstances, declaring the goodness and perfect ways of God in the midst of what is going on that doesn't appear good and perfect.
   
6. Share realities about God's nature and His ways and works with someone else - this is critical for faith to grow; it must be spoken out to another person.
   
7. Finally, DO NOT allow yourself to be discouraged if you have to rein in your scattered thoughts many times during a time of focusing on the Lord. It takes time to develop a habit of focusing on Him, and He knows that about us and isn't offended by our struggle.

Better than doing this on your own is finding someone else who will do it too; if you can find someone who will do it a couple of times a week on their own while you do it on your own and share your discoveries by phone or by email (if you can't in person), your faith will grow much faster.

The Lord bless you, and may His Spirit, Who never loses focus on the Father and Son, empower you to live and walk by faith one day at a time.