The True Definition Of Faith: Trust In Divine Providence
Not too long ago, I had a dream where I met a young teenage girl and her mother. The girl had a deadly disease that affected her internal organs, was incredibly pale and thin, and I saw big red welts up her arm. Despite her condition, she was peppy and full of exuberance. I am not sure if I told them explicitly, but somehow they found out that I was of a spiritual inclination and became immediately excitable.
The girl and her mother apparently thought that being “spiritual” meant being some kind of oracle. They then inquired if I could give them a revelation about the girl’s health condition. What they were seeking was akin to a prophecy, at least in the way it is commonly understood. I don’t know if they were Christian or pagan, but even many Christians think that a “prophecy” is a message about the future. Somehow I could sense they wanted me to tell them that the girl would be cured of her disease and live a long life.
I saw my face in the dream and my heart sank. Although I wanted to bring them cheer, my conscience could not bring me to say something that I didn’t hear from God—at least not in that moment. If I said this just to make them feel better, it would be a lie. So I kept it very general, not feeding into their expectation of a prophesy of the girl being cured and instead complimenting the girl for her vibrant character, which was observable and truthful.
One could argue that since “ignorance is bliss,” that it would have been better to simply tell the girl she would be healed and live long. Whether or not the prophesy was from God, wouldn’t she be none the wiser? Wouldn’t it be better to give her hope? These are good points, but though this girl was young, she still had the ability to reason, even if it was limited. And I did not feel it was right to superimpose a reality where she may take my words as ultimate truth just because I was older, seemingly prophetic, and wiser. This was actually something she had to work out spiritually while she was alive and I strongly felt I should not interfere in this process. She was too innocent to understand the deeper theological truths of life and it was not in my place to say what she wanted to hear simply to ease my own sense of pity for her situation.
The dream was so interesting to me because this scenario is everywhere in the world from people of all walks of life. We call the pastor or ask others to pray for a sickly loved one and hope they will extend their life.
While I do think that we can pray for someone’s health to be restored or longevity, and intercessory prayer is powerful, we must also understand God’s sovereignty in all of this. I am not saying we should not pray by the way or be full of doubt, but that we must manage our expectations when it comes to what we want for ourselves or others. What we may deem as a tragedy (i.e. an early death) by human standards may be part of God’s plan. Not that God causes all difficult circumstances but He allows it, something I am still admittedly learning and coming to understand.
To go on, most people think that faith is believing you will be guaranteed a desired outcome, whether that be related to health, a job opportunity, financial provision, success, a soulmate, or healing we wish for another.
But this is somewhat of a short-sighted view for a couple reasons:
What we desire may not be in alignment with God’s highest will for our lives. And when we believe we must have something due to “faith,” we are not allowing ourselves to be fully surrendered to God’s will. We are, in essence, being self-willed.
If you think faith means being guaranteed something, you can blame yourself if it doesn’t happen, when there can be a variety of reasons what you wanted did not occur. Take the example of the dream I mentioned above. Many people could be praying in “faith” for the girl to live a long life of a normal lifespan, but if she has an early death, does this mean their prayers failed due to a lack of “faith”? If she herself prayed earnestly in faith and passed away young, would this mean she lacked faith? No, it does not. Although it may sound tragic on the surface, situations like these are often part of God’s will.
Believing faith means being guaranteed an outcome can be a form of trying to predict the future. Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s a good idea to have general desires and do what is in our power for them to be more likely to happen. But we don’t fully 100% know if something will happen, at least not in the way many people believe.
Here is my definition of faith:
From the outer level, faith is about believing something will likely happen. What it is not is a prediction of a guaranteed outcome in the future, which is how many people seem to relate to faith.
From the inner level, faith is trusting in the Lord’s highest divine providence. This may or may not include what we desire; regardless, we are in a state of surrender and gratitude to the best of our ability.
This is extremely important to clarify because many people say things like “Faith is certainty your prayers (for “X” thing) will be answered.” Yet when things don’t pan out the way they’d like, they say, “Oh, well, this just wasn’t God’s plan.” However, this is a contradiction because previously their faith rested on the belief that their desired outcome would definitely be fulfilled. So we cannot make faith incumbent on the fact that a specific outcome is totally guaranteed.
In many manifestation/reality creation circles, people emphasize the importance of feeling a desire as though you already have it, letting go of the outcome, and being open to the form it may arrive to you.
Assuming it is a positive desire, I do agree that having a steadied and more certain attitude towards it is more likely for something to happen. This is not some magical manifestation technique but intention and resonance. We must understand, though, that even with this being the case, faith is much deeper than believing you’ll get what you want for certain. This is a shallow interpretation of faith that does not recognize the scope of God’s omniscience and His wisdom over ours.
I say this not to discourage you when it comes to having faith for the things you desires but to give you an expanded picture, for I have learned the joy of life is not primarily about what we acquire. The joy of life is when we are open like a little child and allow ourselves to be led by the Lord.
Material For Meditation
“1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
“13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
“39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
