Staying “in Faith”

Being “in faith” is a life-changing mindset and attitude.

On the windowsill of my office sit two flowerpots. In each is an orchid. One is almost completely dead, with three desiccated leaves, and one tiny, shriveled, yellow-green leaf sitting atop the stem. The other is alive, but only with four, long, drooping leaves, and a brown, stiff flower stem about 10-inches tall. Neither plant has had a flower in many months.

The plants are in this near-death condition because of my inattention. For years they would regularly put up a flower stem on which four to eight beautiful orchids would bloom and last for more than a month. We kept them in our living room window, where they received indirect sunlight. But then we moved them into my office, where there is much less light, and I watered them irregularly at best.

These orchids are a picture of what can happen to a Christian’s faith. Faith does not flourish without attention.

Firm in faith

Isaiah 7:9 says, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (ESV).

We need to be “in faith.” Faith must be our mindset, our overall attitude. Anyone who knows us well should be able to describe us as persons who have a spirit of faith, a heart full of faith, just as Acts 6:5 describes Stephen as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and Barnabas as “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24).

But we will not get “in faith” by accident. We need to attend to two aspects of our heart.

Both general and specific

We need to water both general faith and specific faith.

Our overall spirit of faith consists in the firm belief we have in the truths developed in the previous posts of this series, in particular:

• God rules over all with unlimited, sovereign, almighty power.
• God is perfectly faithful and true.
• God has promised to answer prayers that meet certain conditions.
• God delights to answer prayers because he is a good father overflowing with favor toward his children.
• God pays perfect attention to my every word and prayer, and in accordance with them works in my life.
• By faith I already have the answers to my prayers.
• God fulfills prayers of faith in his time, his way, and according to his will.
• God makes prayer and faith powerful.
• What we say and do reveals what we truly believe.
• Faith is tested.
• Faith can grow.
• God’s Word creates faith.
• Faith is completed through love.
• God does not answer the prayers of an unforgiving person.
• God often requires those who believe his promises to wait much longer than expected for their fulfillment.
• No matter what our circumstances say, the Word of God will prove true if we have faith.
• God is gracious.
• God is watching over his Word to perform it.
• Faith pleases and glorifies God.

If you believe these truths as you believe the sun is hot, you will be “in faith.” Your heart and mind will have a faith culture where faith for specific promises of God will easily flourish. For this reason I regularly review and meditate on these truths.

If you doubt these fundamentals of faith, you will have a difficult time trying to believe any specific promise of God, such as his promises to provide for you (such as Philippians 4:19) and protect you (such as Psalm 121).

Specific faith

When I was in high school, several times a day my father would strap a sphygmomanometer to his arm and test his blood pressure. Keeping track of that was critical to his health.

Similarly we need to pay attention to our level of faith and do the work necessary to be generally in faith rather than generally in doubt, to believe rather than disbelieve.

For most people it is what it is. Like a flag on a pole, which behaves differently as the wind continually changes, their faith is at the whim of circumstances, input from reading and media, irregular devotional life and church attendance, emotions, and trials. Most Christians do not memorize or meditate on faith-building promises as a healthy person pays attention to exercise and diet. When doubt is their prevailing attitude, they are not self-aware and proactive to change it. They ignore it just as I have ignored my orchids for a long time (but no longer. When I finish this post, I will pitch my orchids).

Takeaway

Either faith or doubt will predominate in your heart. On any day, in any week, in any season of life, we will in general be a person of faith or of unbelief.

Being in faith means being aware of the faith level of one’s heart and taking whatever action is necessary to have faith in general toward God and his Word, and faith in specific for particular promises on which we are standing.

My father lived 82 years, more than 35 years beyond when I first saw him regularly checking his blood pressure. You can have strong faith as you pay attention to stay firmly “in faith.”

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)