Father, may I trust you as a three-year-old would.
No one can experience God unless he has faith. Faith believes what is unseen, and without faith it is not possible to please God (Heb 11:1, 6). This is basic. Faith deals with our beliefs, and since it deals with our beliefs, one may think that it does not belong in a discussion about the heart. But faith is first and foremost a matter of the heart. “If you … believe in your heart that God raised [Jesus] from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).
Faith does have an intellectual element to it, but the intellectual part has no meaning without the heart. Many people honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him (Mt 15:8). They say the right things; they may believe the right things in their heads, but they have no heart for God.
Sometimes you hear people criticize the idea of faith because it makes a big deal out of the beliefs a person holds. “Who cares what your beliefs are?” they may say. “What really matters is the life you live.” To such people, someone who lives a “good life” without the beliefs is better than someone full of hatred with the beliefs. The criticism might be worth exploring if faith actually implied such a situation. In reality, however, the criticism shows merely that the critic does not understand faith.
Faith does entail beliefs. But those beliefs must be rooted in the heart. If you argue for the doctrine of God but never entrust yourself to your Heavenly Father, then you have no faith. What good will it do you to nod your head to a set of beliefs if you never give your life to them? When Jesus touches hearts, He changes people’s lives. Until someone believes from the heart, he is not a follower of Jesus, for Jesus demands the allegiance, the love, and the submission of the heart. This is crucial. The heart translates belief into life. Unless the heart gets hold of a belief, the belief remains dead.
Faith from the heart means that the believer lives as if his beliefs are true. Indeed, this is what a believer truly is. If people do not live in accordance with what they say they believe, then the normal word we use to describe them is “hypocrites.” Hypocrites are not followers of Jesus. They are pretenders.
The heart of faith is simple. It is the heart of a child. It trusts in what God has said. It stands firm upon God’s Word. Faith tells us that we are forgiven through the shed blood of Christ even when we may feel guilty for lashing out at a friend. Faith tells us that God is on our side even when we lie sick in bed. Faith tells us that God will complete His work in us even when we see so much sin in our own lives. Faith brings hope because it reveals the glory that God’s people shall one day see and share. Faith brings love because it is itself a warm embrace of the love of God. Faith produces peace because it rests in the righteousness that God has provided. Faith leads to joy because it sees the pit out of which God has rescued us. Faith brings gratitude to God. Faith produces freedom in the Spirit. Faith helps us wait with patience. Faith simply trusts God.
Faith is so simple that a three-year-old can have it, but it entails so thorough a claim upon our hearts that most adults don’t want it. They would rather have something less pure and call it faith. Faith turns a person inside out because faith is how we see God, and God turns people inside out. For this reason, faith is dangerous.
Faith is practical. It involves real life situations like “will we have enough money to pay the rent this month?” or “will we ever be able to have a baby?” Faith sees something bigger and more important than the rent or a baby and fits those cares into a proper perspective. It also sees a great Father who provides our every need. It can thus rest not in the job or the doctor, both of which are fleeting, but in the goodness of God Almighty, who never wavers.
All of these things, and so much more, get at the heart, and without the heart, faith does not exist.
