Enough Faith: You've Already Got What It Takes to Make a Difference (Hardback)

Introduction

She wheeled her way up to me after one of our early Sunday services crying her eyes out. When she told me her story, it broke my heart.

It also made me angry.

It wasn't this wheelchair-bound young woman's disability that bothered me, and it wasn't that she hadn't been healed. I know my God well enough to understand that He sometimes allows people He loves to go through tough times when it suits His purposes, which are always for our best. What really troubled me was some of the things some well-meaning but very misguided Christians had been telling her about her disability. This dear young woman-a woman who loved God and believed in Him as the God who keeps all His promises-had fallen victim to some popular but very unsound teaching.

For years and years she'd been told that the reason she wasn't able to get up out of her wheelchair and walk was because she "didn't have enough faith to be healed." And because she believed what she had been told, she'd been carrying a load of guilt and sorrow over her "little faith."

Right off the top, let me say that I certainly do believe in a wonder-working God of miracles who heals people when He desires. The God who created the intricacies of the human body can certainly heal it-in an instant-whenever He chooses to. But I also believe that He doesn't always choose to. He didn't in the Old Testament. He didn't in the New Testament. And He doesn't now. The truth is, there are times when God allows His sons and daughters to remain in terrible physical straits simply because-for reasons only He understands-He chooses not to raise them up yet. And until He moves to change our situations, it doesn't matter how much faith we have, because we'll stay where we are for as long as He wants us there (2 Corinthians 12:7-10.)

I'm not the first pastor to be angered and grieved over bad teaching. If you read the book of Galatians, you find Paul almost beside himself, he was so upset over the false teachers and twisted doctrines that had slipped into the church he had founded with his own blood, sweat, and tears. These teachers were loading up weights on the backs of the brothers and sisters that they were never, never meant to bear. So Paul got really angry.

And so do I.

It deeply disturbs me when I meet so many Christians walking around today under a load of guilt because of unbalanced, unbiblical teaching. They can't look another believer in the eyes because they've been taught that the only reason they haven't been healed-physically, emotionally, or relationally-is because they didn't beg, borrow, or steal "enough faith" to make it happen.

And it goes beyond healing.

They're also told they need "more faith" to be a good spouse, a wise parent, an effective employee, and a faithful witness for Christ. When it doesn't happen ... well, they feel defeated and deficient. Second-class Christians.

What upsets me most about this kind of teaching is that it directly contradicts something Jesus told His twelve disciples at the very moment they were facing a "crisis of faith" of their own: "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20).

Jesus calls all of us to live lives of faith. He calls us to simply believe in a God who keeps all His promises and who responds to us, when we put the little faith we have in Him. You see, it doesn't take a large amount of faith on our part for God to do great things on our behalf. No, it takes a little faith-faith the size of a tiny seed-in a big God who is able to do far beyond what we even dare ask for.

Too many believers make the mistake of building their "devotional lives"-those times they set aside for reading the Word, meditating, and praying-around trying to acquire more faith.

And that, I believe, is exactly backwards.

When we take the attitude that we've got to have more faith in order to get God to do what we need or want Him to do, then we're putting the focus on ourselves, not Him. We become worried and preoccupied about what we can do, instead of filling our hearts up with the God who can move mountains on our behalf.

Do you want this whole book in a nutshell? Here it is: It's not the amount of faith we have that matters. What matters is what we do with the faith God has given us. What matters is putting the faith we have-be it great or small-in a big God, knowing He will keep all His promises and do what He has said He will do. When we focus ourselves that way, we can look at the mountains in our path and know that whether or not God moves them, our little faith in Jesus Christ will give us all we need to get through the situation. Any situation.

I hope that as you read through this book you will see that God never called anyone to have a "big" faith, just a faith that is completely, radically placed in Him and in His Word. Even more than that, I hope you will understand that putting that little faith in Him will make a huge difference-in your life and in the lives of those God brings into your world.

How much faith do we really need?

What if you found out you have all you need already?

Well, read on, and let's check it out!

(Continues...)