The Roll of Faith in Prayer

“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” (Hebrews 11:32-34)

FAITH IS the link between our souls and God. It is the capacity of entering into fellowship with the Eternal Love and Power, so that we are able to do all things with the sense that it is not we who do them, but God in us and with us. Faith is the open door and window towards God. In faith our heart goes out towards God in clinging dependence, and God comes in to strengthen us with His Divine fullness.

In human life, when we trust a person, we draw from them all that they are able to supply; in the Divine life, faith draws upon the resources of God, so that they flow freely into our nature, and the results of our life-work is immensely increased. Faith is possible amid a great deal of ignorance. It is clear that Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah were ignorant of the truth that the Gospel has revealed, and yet we learn that their work was largely due to their faith. Time comes and goes; the revelation of God grows from less to more; but the attitude of faith is always the same--in the simple woman that touched the hem of Christ's garment, as in St. John the beloved disciple, who had years of training in Christ's School.

Faith achieves very different results. In some, it produces the heroic strength that turns the battle from the gate, and in some, the passive suffering that endures the long ordeal of pain. Here, it turns the edge of the sword; there, shuts the mouths of lions. We know how electric force may be applied to all the various machinery of human life. In one place it is used for the beaming light, in another to drive the street car or train, or it is to flash the message of music and speech from one continent to another. So Faith is able in prayer to appropriate God's might for any purpose that lies within the compass of our life-tasks, whether active or passive. (See Hebrews 11:32-39.)

God bears a witness to all who trust Him. He never fails us in the hour of need. His response is the echo of our appeal. As soon as the uplifted arm of the tramcar touches the overhead wire, there is the spark, and the immediate entrance of electric power. So God answers faith.

PRAYER
O God, we are full of need, but we have learned that You give power to the faint and to those that have no right. Change our weakness into Your strength; our ignorance into Your wisdom; our changefulness into Your everlasting constancy. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.