Assume? • Faith? – A Case Study
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” Lk 22:31-34
Peter sincerely assumed he had faith to stand-up for Jesus, but he did not as proven by the results. And Peter was devastated by his lack of faith at a critical point in time.
All Christians are surprised and disappointed when they fail in a trial they are sure they should have had faith for. But, just as James tells us:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Jas 1:2-4
Peter tells us to:
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2Pe 3:18
Because Grace, growing and maturing Grace, is THE source of true extraordinary (miracle – beyond ourselves) faith.
We can try to run and hide from trials (and with enough effort and sacrifice we likely can avoid many of them), but this will mean less developing faith – and more and more faith is surely needed as we face the great, inevitable, trials of aging, dying (ourselves and others close to us) and many other larger trials we cannot control at any cost or effort.
So, we choose to face life head-on, by Grace – with Christ, or we devote our energy to avoiding the lessons and teachings of smaller trials only to face the larger trials on our own.
In the end we will find that it is not the difficulty of a trial that dictates its impact on us, but our level of preparation to face it – faith (knowing Grace, what Christ promises, what we must do/not do to receive, protect, use and benefit from it) is the necessary preparation for trials. And a seed of faith (all we sometimes initially have) is enough to begin a successful defense (and offense!) against a new trial.
And when we are not in the midst of an obvious trial (and do not see one on the horizon – the horizon for most trials is very short) we certainly know one is coming! In the interim we should be praising Christ for the momentary peace and, at the same time, double-down in growing in His Grace and knowledge – we should be in Christ, His Word, prayer, fellowship (primarily with those who know, love and seek to follow Him . . .), listening for God to reveal to us the good works He specifically and precisely planned in advance for us to do . . . For, we can be sure, in the short periods of peace, we will have plenty to keep us occupied so we don’t, as is the great temptation, turn our hearts (followed by our time, emotions, money . . .) to the ever-present tempting Vanity Fairs of life.
- Trials - time to use our seed of faith, build on it and successfully face and defeat the enemy through the power of God’s Grace.
- Peace-time – time to prepare for the next inevitable trial.
Trials & Peace: periods of learning the very very difficult Grace of entering into the promised Sabbath-Rest of Christ (that rest that knows, by faith, the trials of life are ultimately God’s, not ours):
It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Heb 4:6-11
And this promised Sabbath-rest of Christ is KNOWING (having growing faith) in God’s sovereignty, being able to say, believe and live:
“We have no power to face this vast army [any trial] that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” 2Ch 20:12
So the Bible and history tell us that, yes, Peter failed when he, in pride, assumed he could face and overcome the trial of a threat to his life when Jesus was arrested, but then later faced his own death confidently with his growth in the grace, knowledge and faith of Christ – when he humbled himself, entered into God’s promised Sabbath-rest of Christ knowing God is sovereign and would save him eternally to be with Christ.
The example of Peter shows us it is legitimate and right to have faith that, in any trial, God offers us Grace. At the same time, it is not right to assume we already have this faith – we must be “in Christ” to have this assurance and prepare, until the trial comes, because some of the greatest trials come at times of no apparent danger when we are tempted to let-up, drop our defenses and open ourselves to great danger. We need to move from assuming about Christ to really believing in Him. And this means we must do the work God has laid out for us:
Jesus said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” Jn 6:29
And this work will surely, as Peter himself learned, mean we will:
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2Pe 3:18