I wrote it on my dry erase board!

Outside of my office, I have a dry erase board.  On it I write quotes from books that I am currently reading.  Today I erased a quote that I had from Mildred Wynkoop and scribbled a quote from A.W. Tozer.  This is what I wrote:

"...we forget that faith is confidence in God's character."

Attributes of God Volume 2

Lisa and I are blessed with two children.  They trust that we will protect them and provide for them. You could say that they have a sort of confidence in our character.  We have proven ourselves in the past to do just this: Love, provide, and protect.  They trust us.  They have faith that we will provide for them today and tomorrow because we have proven ourselves to them in the past.  

Faith in God has been defined for me in the past as an abstract idea that all Christians were just supposed to have.  We are told (and as a preacher, I quite often say this to my parishioners) that we are just to have faith.  If we don't understand something, "Have faith!"  If we are going through a difficult moment in our lives or if we are plagued with anxieties, doubts, and fears, we are told to have faith.  Just do it -- whatever "it" is and have faith in God.  But what has exploded in my mind today as I have meditated on this particular quote is that faith is more than an abstract feeling in an abstract idea of who God is.  Faith is a confidence in God.  It is a confidence in God who has proven Himself in the past to provide and protect us today.

John 1:12 reminds us that we are the children of God.  If this is true, then can we not have the same confidence in God that our children have in us?  Can we not have the same childlike faith that God will provide and protect us like our children have faith in us?  Faith in God is not an abstract notion.  By no means!  It is a confidence in the character of God who has proven Himself in the past and will love and protect us today and tomorrow!

Write this on a notecard today and be reminded of it throughout this entire week: Faith in God is knowing that God will do what He said He will do because He said He will do it.  Believe it!