Hindrances to Full Faith (1)

…contrary to hope, in hope [Abraham] believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Romans 4.18

Fruitless faith?
The Christian life is a life of faith – full faith. In it we reckon on the greatness, grace, power, and goodness of God, and bring our lives into line with what He prescribes and expects in every area of life. We are plants in the garden of the Lord, and we long to bear fruit in line with His purposes and our joy.

We journey through this life by faith, by trusting in God, and not merely by what we see: our familiar experiences or reasoned best-guesses (2 Cor. 5.7). Without faith, it is impossible for us to please the Lord (Heb. 1.6). When we live by faith, there are virtually no limits to what God might be willing to show us or enable us to do in His Name (Matt. 21.22).

Faith is the assurance that what we hope for we already possess, and the evidence that comes forth in all our daily experience. By faith we show that we look to God, trust in His Word, and are determined to know His presence, promise, and power in every aspect of our lives (Heb. 11.1).

In our day it seems apparent that the faith of those who name the Name of Jesus Christ is not bearing the kind of exceeding abundant fruit that might be expected (Jn. 15.1-5; Eph. 3.20). Many surveys and studies have shown that, when it comes to our everyday lives, Christians are not all that different from the unbelieving people among whom we live and work. Our culture shows diminishing evidence of true and lively faith informing all the great issues and institutions of the day.

As a people, the millions of us who claim to believe in Jesus are simply not evidencing a faith that turns our world upside-down for Jesus.

Perhaps it’s time we paused to ask why. What is it about our faith that is keeping us from bearing the sort of fruit we see in the Christians of the New Testament, and which we can discern in other eras of Church history as well? Is something – or are some things – inhibiting the growth and fruitfulness of our faith? And if so, what are they, and how can we overcome them?

Father of the faithful
The case of Abraham, as Paul recounts it in Romans 4, is a good one for us to consider. Here is a faithful man – the father of all the faithful, as Paul says (v. 16) – and one from whose example we might be able to discover any hindrances to faith keeping us from full and abundant, transforming life in Jesus Christ. How do we see Abraham recognizing and resisting the various hindrances to faith that might have throttled his walk with the Lord and left him just another forgotten believer on the pages of Church history?

We note, first of all, that Abraham kept his focus on the proper objective. Against what must have seemed impossible odds, Abraham believed God when He promised the he would be the father of many nations.

Abraham never strayed from this focus. Every action he took – even those stumbling and bumbling actions which brought the rebuke of God – was with a view to attaining the promises of God. He would not allow lesser promises – such as the esteem of his neighbors, material prosperity, or the remembrance of his pagan past – deflect his vision from the exceeding great and precious promises of God.

Abraham must have rehearsed the promises of Genesis 12.1-3 daily, praying them back to God and organizing his day around whatever he could think to do to move closer to realizing the blessing and blessedness of the Lord. He never lost focus on these promises and the God Who gave them.

Which promises?
What about us? What promises focus our minds, capture our hearts, organize our priorities, and drain our strength each day? The promise of a bigger income? The hope of material happiness or relational bliss? The prospect of early retirement and a life of leisure? A comfortable, untroubled status quo?

If our promises only reach to the temporal and material horizon of our lives, then we will never know what it means to walk in full faith, we will never experience the pleasure of God, and we will express but little of the abundant evidence of Spirit-filled power in our lives.

But if we focus day by day, moment by moment, on the precious and magnificent promises of God, and keep those promises in focus, so that they command all our plans and paths, our faith will begin to grow, and we will begin to live like Abraham, our father in the faith.

Only by focusing on the Lord and His promises will we be in a position to recognize, confront, and overcome all the hindrances to faith that we can expect to encounter in our journey of full faith.

For reflection
1.      What do you understand by the “precious and very great promises” of the Lord (2 Pet. 1.4)?                                         

2.      How much, and in what specific ways, do these promises inform and guide your walk with and work for the Lord?

3.      What hindrances to full faith do you experience, and how do you deal with them?

Next steps: Meditate on Genesis 12.1-3. Pray those promises back to God. Then rewrite them in a way that can guide your daily planning and life. Share that rewritten version with a Christian friend.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 6 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Hindrances to Full Faith” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.