THE OPEN SECRETS OF FAITH:
The Ones You Seldom Hear
By Cyrus B. Fletcher

Preamble: The original three languages of the Bible make no distinction between faith and believing since they have only one word to use. Thus in Biblical language they easily express faith as a verb and believing as a noun. Faith/believing is an action word.

One: Faith is not a commodity, an attitude, or method of action that God tries to market or sell. God simply demands faith of us. He insists that we believe Him. God began the long historical road that led to the Christ when He asked Abram to believe Him. God does not say to us, “You can make this work.” God still says to us, “Believe me.”(or “Faith me.”)

Two: Faith does not put God at your disposal or you in control of God. Faith puts God in control of you and you at his disposal. So much time and energy is spent on our trying to get God to do something for us. We are confronted by Almighty God. He is in control. And faith, biblical faith, will lead us to do something for God. Remember God loves us and trusts us enough to require something of us. When was the last time you asked, “Lord, what can I do for you?” Well, that is too long!

Three: Faith is not a spiritual manipulative technique for successful living. Faith is your personal response to God. We have all watched churches and movements built on convincing people that faith will guarantee successful living with all the material and cultural things that go with modern civilization. In fact, they insist that if you do not have all those things then something is wrong with your faith. Faith is not spiritual magic. In faith one personally responds to God, accepting him and committing oneself to him. Successful faith brings forgiveness, salvation and service. Beyond that all else is an appeal to selfishness and pride and fear.

Four: Faith is not primarily about content or correctness. Faith is primarily about contact. The Bible warns us not to congratulate ourselves on the correctness of our positions, posturings or habits. Experience cannot create or shape God. But neither can attitudinal or doctrinal correctness guarantee valid experience. The Bible leads us to believe certain facts about Jesus, but the Bible also insists that we can believe in the living Christ. We can actually believe in Him. We can be in contact with the very Holy Spirit of God. Jesus said, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me you evildoers.’” (Matthew 7:22-23) The secret is not in the structure, the intensity or the method used but in the reality of the contact made.

Five: Faith is not so mysterious and illusive as it is costly. To paraphrase King David when he purchased a threshing floor to set up the Tabernacle, “I will not offer unto God that which costs me nothing.” Faith, like love will not involve deep mysteries and disguised truths as much as it gets one involved! Faith will get us involved in the affairs and mission of God. Salvation is free, the gracious gift of God. But we continually try to avoid paying the price of ‘faithing.” And faith costs dearly. Faith costs us ourselves.

Six: In one of the favorite expressions in street talk of today, faith is not about you. Faith is about God and you and others. The 20th Century saw the rise of the philosophy that says all people are motivated my self-interest to the exclusion of all other motivations. But when we believe God we find ourselves doing things for God and other people. In faith we reach out beyond ourselves. We find ourselves doing things though it costs us beyond our selfinterest. Faith is personal. And personal means one is related. We did not get here and become who we are all by ourselves. The Bible never presents a self-centered private version of faith. Jesus dying on the Cross was very personal, but there was nothing private about it. That is the way it is with faith.

Seven: Faith is not the ultimate technique to self-help. Faith will lead you to help others. Nowhere did Jesus say, ‘I am teaching you how you can help yourself.’ Jesus in essence does say, ‘I forgive you. Now you forgive others. I love you. Now you love me and others. I am making you one of my people. Now you live among your kinsmen like you belong to me.’ It is not so much that we can make faith work for us. Faith makes us work for God.

Eight: Faith is not solely about solving our problems. Faith leads us to become solutions. Jesus bragged on people who did things for God despite any problems they may have had. God came in person in Jesus Christ. And Jesus sends us, in person, to be solutions to people’s problems, to society’s ills, and world hurts. Jesus never failed to say, “Follow me” when doing so would bring persecution, deprivation and even death. Beside the lake after his resurrection Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep…. You will stretch out your hands and someone else…will take you where you do not wish to go.” (John 21:17-18) The Bible does not promise that God will take care of our problems before he asks us to get involved in his work. God requires something of us whether or not we have any problems.

Nine: Faith is not getting relief from our cares as much as it is about getting us to care. If God cares about us, and he does, then he expects us to care about other people. Biblical faith will get us into all sorts of caring situations. That is the way God wants it. God expects that of us. In fact God commands that of us.

Ten: Faith is not so much about us claiming God’s promises as it is about God claiming us in order to use us to keep his promises to someone else. This secret may be the hardest one for us to grasp. The most basic promise that God makes to us is that he will be God. He will be himself. God promises that we do not have to worry about who and what God is. He says, “ will take care of that. I AM God.” He says to those who believe him, ‘You begin to live like you believe me. I am sending you to keep my promises to the world.’

Postlude: No list can encompass all the open secrets of faith, but these ten make a small effort to break through the engrained patterns and definitions which lock so many people away from seeing what faith means in our lives. These secrets will not make you one of those ‘in the know.’ But if they get you into faith in God, if they get you to believe Jesus Christ, they have accomplished their purpose.

Cyrus B. Fletcher is a retired pastor, Baytown, TX

October 2003