GOD IS THE OBJECT

“Have faith in God.” Faith is firm persuasion, conviction, to believe in, trust in, cling to and rely upon God. Faith is based on fact, who and what God is, and produces realistic hope. God is the object of our faith in this verse. Some erroneously interpret this verse as “Have the God kind of faith”, where faith is misconstrued to be the object of God. God neither has nor needs faith for this is a one sided dependency proposition, He’s the God and we are the man! Likewise some put their faith in what they want from God, healing, financial help, relief from the adversities of life. But the need should never be the object of faith, merely the reason for exercising it. The object of faith is always the Lord Himself, who knows what we have need of before we ask and will only give us good gifts that accord with His purpose for us – good from His perspective. And as to His purpose: “You shall be perfect.” Perfection (gk., teleios) is spiritual maturity, the emanating attributes of Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. In a word, the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our loving Father is constantly at work in us “both to will and to do”, equipping us to carry out His will, then reminding us it is “for His good pleasure” and “well pleasing in His sight.” It is noteworthy spiritual maturity has little to do with gifting or ministries, and everything to do with character, the character and nature of our savior reproduced like reflected light in and through us. If we love God we are the called of God, “called” denoting not only the call of the Father to a wayward heart but the acceptance by the receptive heart – “the called” as a completed act. All things of life, the good, the bad and the ugly are used by our loving Father to mold and shape us into sons and daughters reflecting the attributes and nature of His son. God wastes nothing, especially pain. As C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it “God whispers to us in pleasures…but shouts in our pain.” In this way all things of life, life’s circumstances, produce good in accordance with the Father’s purpose. If it’s a “thing” God uses it to produce the object of our faith in us – God in us transforming us into Himself. This is a good thing! (Mk. 11:22; Matt. 6:8, 7:11, 5:48; Gal. 5:22-23; Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21; Rom. 8:28)