The Faith Door

On campus at my university there is an automatic door that I have come to think of as The Faith Door. For some reason I haven't been able to pinpoint, I habitually doubt the promise of automatic doors, expecting one day to barrel straight into a deceitful supposedly-automatic door and hit the glass full-on. I just don't trust them to open.

And when it comes to automatic doors that come close to convincing me that they really really have no intention of opening [to borrow a Southern-ism:] The Faith Door sure do beat all.

That door waits to open until the absolute LAST second -- until your nose is a millimeter away and your breath is making fog on the glass.

During the first half of the semester I'd approach The Faith Door tentatively, hoping if not to avoid the collision at least to minimize the impact. But lately I've been trying just to walk through it without any hesitation, trusting in it to open.

On Monday, as I made my reckless approach, I tripped on a doormat, slid, and ran nose-first into The Faith Door, which, sensing my approach, graciously opened and let me out (just like it said it would).

It was a close call.

But it made me think about what living by faith is all about.

Like the automatic door, God has made promises about what He will do. Unlike the automatic door, He leaves us with absolutely no doubt that He will.

So often I count myself as "walking by faith" when I am still approaching the faith door haltingly, tentatively, and full of doubt. How can I, instead, trusting fully in His promises, continue full speed ahead?

Reading the Gospels recently, I've been struck by how often Jesus commended and responded to the faith of those who approached Him. To have faith in Him is to recognize His Godhood, His powerfulness -- it is to bring Him glory.

Then on Monday night Nate pointed out that in many of the psalms the psalmist looks forward to what he will do in the future in response to God's fulfilled promises, which he takes as a given in verses like Psalm 42:11:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

All over the psalms we see a pattern of trust in God and expectation of His deliverance and His blessing -- no matter how dark things look in the present.

The true test of our faith is not what we say but the way we live. Do we live second-guessing His provision in the present and doubting His promises for the future? Or do we live in sure-footed reliance on those promises, trusting Him to do wondrous things?

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2