This is the fourth in a series of blogs on Faith as a part of the Armor of God.
When Roman soldiers encountered an overwhelming attack of arrows and spears coming from their enemy, they grouped together and interlocked their shields forming a protective barrier for their entire squad. Since the shields overlapped, each soldier received additional protection that they would not have if they stood alone with just their shield. In this manner they were able to survive near impossible odds.
In the same manner Christians can receive additional support to strengthen their faith from their brothers and sisters in Christ when facing what appears to be the impossible.
The body of Christ is stronger than one believer. The author of Hebrews 10:23-25 states, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” In essence the body of Christ is encouraged to put our shields of faith together forming an even greater protective barrier against attack.
However, every believer does not have the same level of faith. This is due to individual experiences, Bible learning, and maturity. This becomes most evident when the body of Christ is faced with a seemingly impossible situation. At these times the collective protective barrier has holes in it where some individual Christians have dropped their shield of faith. The barrier’s effectiveness is weakened, or at times is completely ineffective at repelling attacks.
Each believer grows in their faith daily. As we study God’s word and fellowship with other believers, we strengthen our faith through what we learn and experience. We believe in God and what He did for us through Jesus Christ, and we hope in many things that we do not see because of what we learn about God. But in actuality our individual faith can be limited when we face what appears impossible. And this limited faith is exacerbated when the world around us does not believe it is possible as well as many of our fellow Christians. This is something we must guard against.
As an illustration of this consider the Bible passage in John 11:1-46. This passage is well known and is about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus told us in verse 4 that, “it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” Many have written about this passage and there are many lessons to be learned from it. But for my purpose I share the following observations on limited faith:
1) Mary and Martha sent for Jesus while Lazarus was sick (verse 3) because they believed Jesus could heal him. But when Lazarus died, they did not believe he could be resurrected (verses 21 and 32).
2) The disciples were reluctant to go to Judea again with Jesus (verses 7 and 8) after His rejection by Jewish leaders. They did not believe He was making the right choice.
3) Thomas fears the worst as they return to Judea (verse 16). He believed they would die.
4) Some of those with Mary and Martha remembered the healing miracles by Jesus, but they also did not believe Lazarus could be resurrected (verse 37).
5) Martha was concerned about the stench upon removing the stone (verse 39) and did not want to open the grave.
In the examples listed above each individual had faith in Jesus, but their faith was limited in different ways. They believed Jesus could heal because they had seen examples of His healing. But they could not fathom that He had the power to resurrect the dead.
Martha also acknowledged the relationship between God and Jesus (verse 22), the truth of the resurrection on the last day (verse 24), and her belief that Jesus was the Messiah (verse 27). Yet her faith was limited from believing everything that Jesus could do.
It’s easy for us to look back at Mary, Martha, and the disciples and criticize them for not believing that Jesus could heal Lazarus; after all we have the Bible to tell us what Jesus did. But our individual faith today is no different than theirs. Our beliefs are built on what we know and have experienced. When we are confronted with a difficult situation, we often think of it in terms of what we know. So, if the desired outcome requires something that we have no experience with, or there is no prior example for it, we are not inclined to believe it can happen. Our faith is limited.
In Matthew 17:14-20 the disciples of Jesus encountered a demon-possessed boy, but they could not heal the boy because of their limited faith. When they brought the boy to Jesus the boy was healed. Jesus then told the disciples, “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Jesus encourages us to have unlimited faith.
In Genesis 15:1-6 Abram had relocated to the land of Canaan as directed by the Lord. At the time Abram was close to 80 years old and had no children to inherit his estate. The Lord told Abram that he would have a son to be his heir, and that Abram would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Even though from experience Abram did not know of anyone who fathered children in their eighties, “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.” Abram believed that nothing was impossible for the Lord. Therefore, his faith in the Lord concerning the promise for a son was unlimited.
It’s easy for us today to criticize other Christians when their faith is less than ours. Or to criticize them when they have more faith than we do. But this is wrong. Just as the Roman soldiers stood together with their shields held high, the body of Christ needs to stand with our individual shields of faith held high together. The Romans had strong soldiers and weak soldiers, but they all stood together. Every Christian needs to do the same. Individually we may not believe there is a solution to our impossible situation, but together we can believe that nothing is impossible for the one true God. Once each attack has ended and the arrows stop flying, our shields of faith will have protected us, and we can then move on trusting in whatever solution the Lord provided; shaken not stirred.
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All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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