Luke Scallon
Published in The Des Moines County News on November 10, 2016.

Hypocritical people at a church where you could never be good enough?  Doing your best to follow God, only to face great trials and suffering?  Attended church for awhile, but it just wasn’t interesting?  Turned to God in the midst of troubles, but those troubles never went away?

Perhaps this is your disposition towards God and the Bible:  “I tried faith once, and it didn’t work.”  I’m convinced there are a lot of people from many different backgrounds and circumstances who feel this way.  They went to church for awhile, or prayed for awhile, or read the Bible for awhile… but now they’ve given up.  Why waste time on something that doesn’t work?

I have three questions for someone with this perspective:  What do you mean by faith?  How did you try it?  And, what did you want it to accomplish for you?

What do you mean by faith?  “Faith” is a broad idea.  Many people think they need more faith.  But it’s not as much about the size of your faith, as it is about the object of your faith.  Even faith in “God” could refer to any religion, and more recently, people have begun to claim “spirituality,” which is even broader, and typically removes God from the equation.  We must define what we mean!  Faith in God is not meant to be mystical; instead, true faith should be rooted in truth.  It is a confident trust in God; that is, who God actually is, not who we want him to be.  The Bible says, ” God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

How did you try it?  Did you pray?  Did you go to church?  Did you read the Bible?  Did you do good works?  These are all good ways to grow as a Christian, but acting like one for awhile does not make you one.  In fact, there is only one way to become a Christian.  You must understand that you are a hopeless sinner in need of rescue.  One man in the Bible came to this realization, and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).  They answered him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

What did you want it to accomplish for you?  Did you want your pain to disappear?  Your marriage fixed?  More money?  Less problems?  Happiness?  I think we all can identify with these desires.  However, Jesus is not the genie in the lamp who magically grants us wishes.  He is accomplishing a greater purpose in our lives.  Turning to God and truly trusting Jesus should change our lives in a way that brings a greater joy and often helps relationships.  But we are guaranteed to find our greatest need in Jesus, who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Don’t give up!  I encourage you to pray and ask God, “I want to believe.  Help my unbelief!”