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The faith described in Chapter 1 is only the starting point for living by faith. It is marvelous to trust Jesus to do things through you that you cannot do yourself. But there is much more to faith than that.
The faith that sets our Christian experience apart from every other human emotion is the reality of Almighty God dwelling in us. His indwelling (abiding) presence is seen in Jesus' allusion to the vine and branches. He does not indwell us only for the purpose of doing. He also indwells us for the purpose of being.
The vine and the branches
What a privilege it is to abide in Jesus and to have Jesus abide in us. He is the whole vine; we are branches that are a part of that vine. Not only do we belong to Him, we are truly a part of Him. Shortly before Jesus left His followers, He told them:
1I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. 8By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:1 11 NASB)
Can you begin to understand what it means to be a part of Jesus? The vine is the whole living organism. The branch is a part of the vine. As believers, we are literally a part of Jesus.
From that intimate union comes many promises from this passage alone:
When we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us, it is Jesus who empowers us. It is His strength working through us. It is His love in us with which we in turn love God and others. It is His faith—not our own—which empowers us to act and rest in faith.
Galatians 2:20 says:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Abiding faith
It is an awesome privilege to exercise faith that can be used to accomplish great things. There is a place in God's domain for doing. It is thrilling to see God do the impossible through our faith. The faith of doing was described in Chapter 1.
However, that is secondary in comparison with the faith that appropriates the indwelling presence of Almighty God Himself.
This faith never exalts self-effort. Nor is the presence of an indwelling God for the purpose of making us powerful. God indwells us so that He can bear fruit through us, and so that He can give us great joy.
The deployment of our lives is God's prerogative. He may produce fruit in some lives by outward demonstrations of His power:
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtath, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. (Hebrews 11:32-34)
He may produce fruit in others' lives in order to demonstrate His grace through extreme hardship and even death:
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:35-38)
Having Jesus abiding in you does not guarantee that you will be successful or powerful from a human perspective. In fact, contrary to expressions of how much God will do with a man or woman completely yielded to Him, the abiding presence of Jesus in no way suggests great outbreaks of evangelism or revival. It will assure, however, that your life will be molded and guided by Jesus' abiding presence so that you become everything that He wants you to be.
What does the abiding presence of Jesus do for our faith?
Hebrews 4:1-3, 9-11 tells what the abiding presence of Jesus does for our faith:
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest.
..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.
Among many other things, Jesus' abiding presence produces the full extent of rest described in these verses. One who is resting in God's perfect provision is freed from any anxiety that life may be out of control. This rest is a perfect confidence in God's ability to care for every eventuality. Nothing outside of His control can harm us even though we might be going through the deepest trial. The calm is not on the outside; the calm is in our spirit.
This rest does not imply passivity or a lack of appropriate human survival instinct. We will protect ourselves or our family both physically and mentally when it is appropriate. Nor does this rest imply that there is no human response when our well-being is threatened. We may fully understand the potential consequences of a life-threatening disease, a family crisis, or loss of employment. At the same time, we will allow Jesus to control our emotions and responses through His sovereign authority. We will seek His direction in whatever action we would take in medical treatment, remedial intervention between family members, or planning for new employment. But the ultimate responsibility for our well-being will be left with Him. We are fully resting in His control and will accept whatever He chooses whether it is to bring about a full resolution of the crisis or to allow devastating disaster.
The reality of this rest is not validated during the pleasant times of life. Anyone can feel secure when everything is going well. Most people can also tolerate slight inconveniences with minimal dysfunction. In contrast, the context for the rest Jesus gives is pronounced adversity. It was those individuals who are described at the end of Hebrews 11 who were resting by faith even though they were tortured, mocked and flogged, chained and thrown into prison, stoned or sawed in two, or were destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The physical injuries produced just as much pain as they would for any of us. The mental pressures, the hunger, and the loneliness were just as intense. But their spirits rested.
Resting faith
Let's start with this principle:
Faith does not negate our understanding of the seriousness of real or potential adversity. It removes anxiety, however, when we acknowledge that the responsibility for the outcome belongs to a sovereign God. By its very nature, faith would cease to exist if there was no recognition of the real or potential adversity.
Do not think of faith as a removal of your understanding or awareness of adversity. In fact, if you did not understand the gravity of an impending event, there would be no need for faith. We don't need faith to face difficulties we aren't aware of.
Consequently, in order to trust God, we must understand that what we are facing entails either real or potential adversity. In fact, the more potential there is for disaster, the more potential there is for faith. It is that simple.
If faith does not remove our understanding of the real or potential adversity, how do we deal with it? We cope by means of resting faith.
In the first chapter, I gave an illustration of a decision to use one-third of your retirement investment for a ministry. If you were financially well off, this would pose no risk. However, if you had just barely enough for your planned retirement, reallocating this amount would most certainly cause hardship. You would understand its future implications. Let's say that you decided to use the money for ministry in spite of the risk. Would God intend for you to begin fretting about your retirement years? No! You see, faith would actually lead you to take a high risk, and an understanding of that risk would make you aware of the fact that you had acted in faith. Acting faith would require the risk.
Now you would learn about resting faith. You would not fret over your future because you would understand that Jesus made the promise in Matthew 6:25, 31- 33:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink? or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Does that mean that you would forget there is risk involved? Of course not. The knowledge of risk would heighten your trust. However, because of your resting faith you would not be paralyzed by fear of the future.
Nor would plans to supplement your income necessarily negate your resting faith. If the Lord led you to do so, you might pursue a home business that would replace the retirement investment you used for ministry. You would not, however, start a business out of panic or without carefully consulting the Lord first.
I am not suggesting that fear in this sense is even wrong.[1] Fear may be the very thing that validates an act of faith. However, it would be your resting faith in Jesus which would allow you to entrust that fear entirely to Him. Having given Him that fear, you would become free of its control while still being aware of its reality.
[1]I am not saying that fear should be an acceptable part of a believer's faith. Our life should evidence the joy and confidence of relying on God to provide for us. I am merely trying to emphasize that living by faith does not erase from our mind the potential risk that we may be taking in order to trust Jesus. I am also suggesting that the reminder of the consequences of that risk is also a reminder of the degree of our willingness to continue trusting Jesus.
Releasing a specific area of fear to Jesus is not typically a one-time event. You may be dealing with an issue that has great potential for personal harm. You may often express your fear of the outcome to Jesus. However, as you grow in Him, it is not a process of fretting. It is a realistic appraisal that says, "Jesus, I am afraid. The potential consequences are more than I can handle. Nonetheless, I am trusting You to take care of me, so I ask You to deliver me from this fear." There is nothing wrong with a full recognition of the danger you face. The error is only in trying to quell the fear yourself rather than trusting Jesus to care for you.
In a practical sense, resting faith requires growth just like acting faith does. To return to the previous example, one day you realize how tired you are getting at work now compared with just a few years earlier. However, you realize that you must continue working because your remaining investments are inadequate for your retirement. That thought will drive you again and again to reaffirm your resting faith. You must not berate yourself for reviewing the risk as time goes on. God will be taking you deeper into a resting faith. At age 57 you might have anticipated some of the problems you would encounter, and God would have given you commensurate faith then. At age 64, however, you might have a different perspective of those same problems. Tiredness might now become an everyday reality. God will want you to continue to grow in faith as your perspective changes with time.
Scripture does not make a distinction between acting faith and resting faith. I have artificially made this division in order to express two aspects of faith. Hopefully, this contrast will help you understand what Scripture identifies as the kind of faith that each believer must practice.
In Chapter 5 (How Do I Get Faith?) I will be more explicit in describing steps you can take toward developing a resting faith. However, at the beginning of this chapter I said that a primary purpose of Jesus' indwelling presence is being rather than doing. It is His purpose to mold us so that we will be conformed to His image. That is not done by displays of power evident to the outside world. He does that by being our indwelling example and by being our constant companion. He does that by being our strength far beyond that which we could muster on our own.
A number of things may parallel your pursuit of resting faith:
Peace
We used the term Resting Faith in this chapter because it emphasizes an important result of faith. The biblical term for resting faith is peace. Peace is the Spirit-given result when a believer trusts God (Jesus) with every eventuality. However, peace is not a distinct entity. It is a by-product of faith. We cannot seek peace apart from a willingness to exercise faith.
An update to a previous example
Chapter 1 closed with an example of faulty faith when the need to determine God's will in a terminal health situation was sidestepped. With a different response, however, the same events could be a wonderful example of resting faith. When appropriate decisions are made according to God's direction, it is exactly those crises that set the stage for displaying resting faith. The circumstances that are entirely outside of human control are the greatest opportunities for placing complete confidence in God's ability to care for every eventuality in life.
Lord God, I want to take full advantage of Your indwelling presence. I want to learn to rest in You. Because I understand that You use adversity to teach resting faith, You can do anything You want in my life in order to cause that to happen. But help me, Lord Jesus, because I am afraid.