Love by Faith

“People here believe that they can get whatever they want by just believing it hard enough. They are sick and they pray, believing that God will make them well, and when they don’t, they lose faith. Faith isn’t lived out by miracles, it’s lived out by love.” At least that’s what Jesse said. It was three hours into the hike, we were hot, sunburned, and out of water. We had spent the morning visiting families of Pointesepe, a hill surging from the arid flatness of Granada. This mound seemed out of place among the farmland and forest and tin-roof houses, but there it was, as its own ecosystem that sheltered about a hundred poor families on the ridges of its crusty slopes. 

Jesse is an evangelist who has been working in Granada since 2010. He is well-acquainted with the way people think here. Poverty is a plague that has ravaged the people of Nicaragua, and most of them have faith in God because they don’t have enough money to put faith in earthly things. They lift desperate prayers to heaven that their children won’t die from diseases they can’t afford, that their husbands will come home at night, and that the meager helpings they cook over coal fires will satisfy them until tomorrow. They have faith that God will sustain them, but know nothing about Him because the churches only care about recital of liturgy and contribution of coins. They are taught that the Lord will save you if you pray to Him hard enough, offer enough money, and refrain from drinking. So it is with determination that women kneel at the sick beds of their children and with desperation that they realize the prayers they were so faithful to offer were not enough. 

In September, when I was at training camp, we had a teaching on miracles. “Pray in faith and you will be healed” was the slogan. I was suspicious as everyone else in the room began to pray over each other’s physical injuries, eagerly watching for a miracle, wondering if today would be the day that they would discover healing as their spiritual gift. It didn’t seem genuine. It seemed as if we were putting the Holy Spirit on display. It seemed as if we were measuring our faith by the size of the miracle produced from it. But as I prayed over my squadmates that morning, I didn’t have “faith”. As much as I wanted to force belief into my stubborn spirit, I couldn’t muster it, and I felt guilty for my unbelief. I probably felt a hint of the guilt that people feel when they pray as hard as they can, but find it ineffective. 

I wonder if we have a mixed-up view of what faith is. In the Bible, there were numerous healings and miracles, and many times Jesus congratulated those he helped for their faith. Was it the healing that was spectacular, or the fact that they knew Who the Savior was? And was it that they begged eloquently that pleased Jesus, or that the beggars came to Him, God in flesh? Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). What do we hope for? Are our hearts set on earthly satisfaction or on the Savior? And can we find certainty in prayer when we don’t know the character of the One we are praying to?

I’m not saying that healing and miracles don’t exist, I actually believe the opposite. I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who is the same yesterday, and today and forever. The same God Who parted the Red Sea, Who spoke to the prophets, Who descended from heaven to live in human flesh is the same God who works all things together for our good today. Don’t you realize that breath itself is divine intervention from the Almighty God? Don’t you see that He is holding everything together, that everything comes from Him and all things bow to Him? If we are healed, it is God, and if we are kept from healing, it is still God. 

So what is faith? Isn’t it knowing Who God is, and believing that because He is Who He says He is, He will do what He has promised? He has not promised us health, wealth, or happiness, and when we pray for these things, believing that it is within His will that we might be satisfied in the earth, we aren’t practicing faith. Because faith is knowing that He is the only One Who satisfies. Faith is knowing that He is the only one Who heals. Faith is being content in all circumstances because we know the God of the universe is working all things for our good. 

We can’t measure our faith by the size of the miracle, but we can in fact measure it. For what is faith without works? (James 2:17) And do we really believe if we don’t back it up with action? Let’s go back to what Jesse told me on the hike. “Faith isn’t lived out by miracles, it’s lived out by love.” I want to clarify his statement by saying that love is a miracle. It cannot be created within ourselves, it has to be called into existence by Love Himself. I cannot gather sufficient love for my enemy by myself, but with the bounty of love that the Lord has freely bestowed on me, I am empowered to fulfill the greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37-39) It is by faith that I love my neighbor, for I have to be assured of Who God is before I can rest in the awkwardness of loving someone else. 

It is love we need to practice, not ignorant belief. The Lord will heal, if it be His will, and we can freely come into His presence asking for things we want. But we must not confuse absence of miracle with absence of God. And we must not fall into false thinking, that God will do what we want Him to do as long as we think hard enough. One day, all things will come to conclusion, poverty and sickness and pain will cease to exist and those who love the Lord will dwell with Him forever. That is what we hide our assurance in, not empty promises made by those who desire a god who caters to their every need. Whether you are being peer-pressured into trying to heal your neighbor, or living on the side of the hill in Nicaragua, the Lord wants you to know Him as He really is. This is the God Who calls you to walk your faith out through miraculous love.