Extreme Faith

 In this day and age when many young people are investing their money, time and energy in extreme sports like rock climbing and bungee jumping, extreme faith unfortunately is not something that have commanded the same kind of enthusiasm. When I read the devotion this morning, the one word I could think of to describe this “step three “faith, is the word extreme.  it is when we find ourselves dangling from one end of the rope with nothing above us, nor below us.      

 The purpose of any extreme sports, as I see it, is to live for a moment of excitement or euphoria.  Just like any addictions, after one heightened experience you will long and live for the next moment.  What I understand extreme faith is living beyond the moment, it is something to be developed throughout a life time of experiences.  It is at a point when man and woman realize there is something deeper to faith than they had imagined.  It is just like Moses, after 80 years of life realized that it was no longer about him and what he had planned.  The moment his extreme faith started to develop was when he began to listen to God, recognized he must do things on God’s term and not his.      

What is extreme faith? I like the illustration Gordon Macdonald used in his book of the same title.  It is like  what the Seafaring Irish monks of the 17th and 18th century did when they climbed into boats and let God guide them with the current.  That is extreme faith.      

            

 Streams in the Desert–July 21, 2010 

“Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece” 

There are degrees to faith. At one stage of Christian experience we cannot believe unless we have some sign or some great manifestation of feeling. We feel our fleece, like Gideon, and if it is wet we are willing to trust God. This may be true faith, but it is imperfect. It always looks for feeling or some token besides the Word of God. It marks quite an advance in faith when we trust God without feelings. It is blessed to believe without having any emotion. 

There is a third stage of faith which even transcends that of Gideon and his fleece. The first phase of faith believes when there are favorable emotions, the second believes when there is the absence of feeling, but this third form of faith believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people, and human reason all urge to the contrary. Paul exercised this faith in Acts 27:20, 25, “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” Notwithstanding all this Paul said, “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”   

May God give us faith to fully trust His Word though everything else witness the other way. –C. H. P.     

      

When is the time to trust?
Is it when all is calm,
When waves the victor’s palm,
And life is one glad psalm
Of joy and praise?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when the waves beat high,
When storm clouds fill 

 the sky,
And prayer is one long cry,
O help and save!

  

When is the time to trust?
Is it when friends are true?
Is it when comforts woo,
And in all we say and do
We meet but praise?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when we stand alone,
And summer birds have flown,
And every prop is gone,
All else but God. 

  

What is the time to trust?
Is it some future day,
When you have tried your way,
And learned to trust and pray
By bitter woe?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is in this moment’s need,
Poor, broken, bruised reed!
Poor, troubled soul, make speed
To trust thy God. 

  

What is the time to trust?
Is it when hopes beat high,
When sunshine gilds the sky,
And joy and ecstasy
Fill all the heart?
Nay! but the time to trust
Is when our joy is fled,
When sorrow bows the head,
And all is cold and dead,
All else but God. 

–Selected

(Judges 6:39).