Faith in God

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
Because of it the ancients were well attested. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them.”

Hebrews 11:1, 16b

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews defines “faith” and recounts the role of faith in the history of the Jewish People beginning with Abraham, our “Father of Faith.” Faith is not a thing or a feeling or a state and it cannot be understood in isolation. Faith must be understood within the context of relationship because it is in someone that we put out faith. For Christians, faith is our response to God’s unceasing call and unconditional love and mercy. To have faith in God is to know that the relationship that exists between God and His People is something that transcends the time and space, something that is beyond us, and something that comes with love, the love of the Father.

Although Abraham was not always believing at the first instance, but with time and with a deepening of his relationship with God, his slow of heart became a heart that pumped for love of God to the point of being willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham knew that God was faithful and that behind everything God does there is a reason, a reason for his ultimate good.

Brothers and sisters, God too calls us. God is not ashamed of us, even when we fall and fall again. God wants our good, but He will not force anything upon us. How is our faith? How deeply do we trust God? How intimately do we know God? We cannot have faith in someone we do not know. Perhaps sometimes along this journey of faith we trip and stumble because we do not really know who God is. Our God is personal and relational. He wants to know us and He wants to be known by us. Let us spend a few moments today in prayer, asking the Lord to reveal Himself to us and also to give us the courage and confidence to open our hearts to Him, so that we might come to truly and unreservedly place our faith in God.

Persisting in Prayer

When was the last time you really got down on your knees and prayed? Maybe it was praying for a loved one who might be in danger or maybe for a friend who is in the hospital. Or maybe you were pouring out your heart before the Lord because you found yourself so alone, unhappy, and sad. Think about the last time you prayed really hard and you wished God would answer your prayer. What was it about? How did it end? Did you keep praying even if what you prayed for did not come to be? Did you persist in your prayer?

In the Old Testament we read about Abraham who pleads with the Lord to not wipe the city away, bargaining with the Lord. At first he asked the Lord if He would spare the city if there were 50 innocent people. After the Lord said yes, Abraham continued to bargain, from 45 all the way down to 10 innocent people; the Lord promised to withhold His anger if there be but only 10 innocent people in the city. “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it” (Genesis 18:32). Abraham persisted in his prayer because He knew that the Lord was a compassionate God who loved His people. He persisted in prayer because He knew God would listen.

Hundreds of years later, the Psalmist sings, “The LORD will complete what he has done for me; your kindness, O LORD, endures forever” (Psalm 138:8). The Psalmist praises the Lord because He knows the Lord will complete the word He has started in him. In other words, he knew that the Lord will always be with him, walking with him, listening to him, and guiding him. He knew that his prayers and supplications will not go unheard, and so he persisted, saying, “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me” (Psalm 138:3a).

Generations later, Our Lord teaches His disciples how to pray and assures them that their heavenly Father hears them and will give them all that they need, for “all who asks, receives, seeks, finds, and knocks, the door will be opened.” In many ways the coming of Jesus was God’s answer to the prayers of the His People: a Savior, a Messiah who would come to redeem them and save them from their sins. St. Paul reminds us of this in his letter to the Colossians, “And even when you were dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” (2:13). Jesus Himself showed what is means to be persistent in prayer.

Despite opposition by His own people, Jesus continued to pray for them, teach them, and love them. Jesus did so because prayer is a relationship, a relationship with the Father. As with any relationship, it must be consistent, and it must be nurtured. Prayer is not simply a request as though a transaction. Although prayer may include a request, it is a request that is rooted in one’s trust and faith in the Lord. Without that trust and faith, there is no prayer, only wishful thinking.

As Christians we must persist in prayer and not in one-time requests because Our God, who is Our Father, hears us and wants to give to us all that we need. He wants to fulfill our hearts’ deepest desires. Let us ask for the grace to persist and persevere in prayer and not give up on our relationship with the One who calls us His beloved.

We Are Known

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”

Jeremiah 1:5

For those of us who are familiar with the old Baltimore Catechism, we know by memorization the answer to the question, “Why did God make you?” “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.” There is a certain logic to this. In order to sacrifice one’s self or to serve another, we must love the other. And in order to love another, we first must know them. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us we cannot love that which we do not know. So, for us, in order to really be a faithful Christian, we must love Christ and in order to love Christ we must come to know Him. This is the same for God. Since He is love, and it was out of love that He created us, He already knows us. We are known by God.

The Call of Jeremiah is one of the most beautiful passages in the Old Testament. The Lord assures Jeremiah that He knew Him before He even formed Him in his mother’s womb. God loved us even before we came into existence and into this world. And it was in loving us that we were formed, and we were formed for a special purpose and mission. Later in the call narrative, the Lord tells Jeremiah to not shy away because he feels he is too young. Our purpose does not magically come once we become an adult. Our purpose has been woven into the very fabric of our being when God formed us, and God never changes His mind. We have always been called, and no matter how much we mess up or how unworthy we feel, God does not stop calling us. He doesn’t stop calling us because our call is part of who we are, and since God has known us from all eternity, He will never forsake us, for we were created out of His love.

Brothers and sisters, we are known by God. Sometimes we may feel small and that God does not have time for us, but that’s not the case. God knows us and loves us, and He has called us each by name for a special purpose; He has created us for love and has called us to love. We are known and we are loved, brothers and sisters. Never doubt that.