The Promise & The Word

Faith in the Middle of the Storm
By Brendalyn Crudup Martin

We all know that faith comes from hearing. That it is not something you can see, touch, hear or show someone else, in the natural sense. The Bible says: Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

But let’s bring that home a little by using some other examples of faith. A child hears from the time they are born that their parents and family loves them, or they should. As that child grows up, they develop faith in that fact that they are loved, by the way they are treated. When parents constantly re-enforce that belief, the child grows secure in their faith.

Well, that’s the same way faith grows in a Christian. We hear about the all powerful love, mercy and grace of God through Christ Jesus and they grow strong and secure in God’s love for them.

This doesn’t happen over-night. We start out as baby Christians, leaning on the faith of those around us, whether it’s parents, grandparents or church family. We have to lean a little while before we can stand alone.

It’s like a baby who crawls first, then pulls himself up, but still needs to hold onto something to keep from falling. When he feels more confident, he steps out; falling a few times before he finally wobbles around. Through all of this, he is still leaning on his loved ones.

Our faith comes from hearing the Word of God taught to us. But still we go through trying times before our faith is molded and forged in the fire. Sometimes things get pretty hot, and if we still have baby faith, we stumble and fall. That is when we have to lean on the faith of others.

I know some of you are saying, “That is when we lean on God,” and you’re right, but God uses others to help us through the storm. Let me give you another example. Suppose you have fallen and hurt your leg. You try to pull yourself up but stumble and someone catches you, holds you up and helps you to your seat. That person represents the faith of others that you are leaning on.

When you learn to pull yourself up and hobble over to a chair by yourself, you are learning to lean on your own faith. This does not mean you can’t lean on anyone. God places people in your path to help you in your journey, but you have to take the first step.

How can you have faith in what you have not heard, and how can you hear unless someone is sent, and how can they go unless they are called.

How do you know your mother loves you if she never tells you or does anything to show it? Now some people have a hard time saying the words, but their actions speak for them. Faith without works is dead. No matter what you say, if you don’t back it up with action, you’re just talking to hear yourself talk.

When your faith is still small, baby faith---whether it is infant or toddler, you can be swallowed up by your needs. Sometimes even those with adult faith allow their focus to wander from Jesus and get swallowed by their need. Everyone has had their faith tested. Some have weathered the storm and some have not.

Peter took his eyes off Jesus and sank. There he was walking on water, just like the Lord, when for a brief moment, he allowed himself to focus on the storm instead of on the Lord. His need outweighed his Faith, and he went down. To his credit though, the first thing he did was call on the Lord for help.

Sometimes we forget that even though we are struggling and it looks like we are sinking fast, we need to call on God for help. Sometimes He answers right away and sometimes He does not. Either way, we have to learn to wait on the Lord.

His Word says that He will not put more on us than we can bear. He knows how much we can bear, but sometimes we doubt ourselves. We let the enemy get a hold of our minds, our thoughts, and twist them against us.

We come to church and get “all fired up” and go home and all hell breaks loose. “By the trying of your faith worked perseverance.”

We struggle day to day, wondering “Why me.” I’m doing what you asked Lord, why am I having more trouble now than when I was out in the world? We have to remember that if the world hated Jesus, it will hate us.

How can you expect the same people who crucified Jesus to welcome you with open arms? I know someone is thinking, but those people are dead, almost two thousand years ago. Are they? When people speak again the Word of God, don’t they become a part of that same group that crucified the Lord, spiritually if not physically?

The law says that you are party to a crime if you have knowledge of it and do not contact the authorities, even if you did not do anything. The driver of the getaway car may not rob the bank, but he was in on the plan and is just as guilty as the person who robbed it.

We let the enemy fool us into pretending nothing is wrong or it’s not our business. If we let the enemy get a foothold in our church or our families, he will do his best to tear it apart. Feelings are hurt. Tempers flare and members leave the church or families fall apart. All because we are not doing, “Thus saith the Lord.”

Too many people are afraid to preach the Word anymore. They try to sugar coat it and hope they don’t offend anyone. If what God’s Word says offends someone, then they need to examine themselves.

But what does all this have to do with Faith? Our faith is tempted constantly. That temptation can take many forms. We need to be grounded in the Word if we want to survive the storm. We need to increase our faith and hold fast to God’s promise.

At some time, we have to grow up. We have to stand on our own two feet. We have to have enough faith to be able to help other baby Christians to stand. How can we help someone else if we’re stumbling around ourselves, the blind leading the blind?

A baby does not suck a bottle until he is twenty years old. Yet we have some Christians that twenty years later, still have not left the baby stage. Some are still trying to learn how to crawl. Some still have their bottles or maybe they’ve made it to the thumb sucking stage.

We have to learn to step out on faith, and that will not happen as long as we allow our need to outweigh out faith. The Bible instructs us Study to show yourself approved.

We need to lean of God’s promise and build our faith through the knowledge of His Word. Then we will not have to worry about our faith being swallowed by the storm.

Brendalyn Crudup Martin is an Ordained Deacon in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) and the Associate Assistant to Rev. Felix M. Jones, the pastor of Phillips Memorial CME Church in Phoenix, AZ. She is also the Poet Laureate of the Arizona Supreme Court.