What Have You Put Your Faith In?

When we say that we have faith, we mean that we believe or trust in something in particular. Faith has many facets and does not always follow the right path that leads to eternity. How many times, when we have gone to a doctor because of some ailment, have we said, ‘I have faith in Dr. X.’

Our faith can be placed in as many things as we have needs, even in inanimate things such as stones or metals. The craftsman makes a sculpture, gives it some arbitrary name, and we bow down before it. We are so foolish that, in our fanciful imagination, we breathe life into objects made by human hands, ignoring the fact that we cannot touch the eternal and true God.

We are tired of entering homes and, when the door is closed, seeing behind it clay vessels containing metal objects and stones with seashells—all these things that God created for our enjoyment, deformed by the hands of man, the supposed supreme work of creation.

Throughout his life, man has devoted himself to disappointing the One who created him. He has every opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit of God in his life, yet he chooses to touch a stone. In his eagerness to manipulate God, he thinks he can confine him in porcelain vessels. Our insecurity knows no bounds and runs rampant as we persist in trying to control our lives, including God within them.

How can we choose to worship an image or an object rather than the true God? Foolish, insecure, clumsy—there is no word that can define our attitude toward a God who reveals himself in his creation. We are fortunate that, even so, this God loves us with a love we will never be able to understand and waits for the day when we realize that he is all we need.

Throughout time, God remains there. We come and go, but he remains unchanging. Images break; some have even been repaired. But our God does not break and needs no repairs. He is the Owner, the Creator, and our life rests in his hands. ‘I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ Deut. 30:19

Even today, these words reach us with overwhelming force. That is why we must determine what we have placed our faith in, so that night does not catch us unaware and we may say, as the apostle said: ‘For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.’ 2 Tim. 1:12