Courageous Faith
Part 2 of “Courageous Character for Contemporary Christians”
Joshua 24:14-15; James 2:14-26
A Meditation by Thomas J. Boone, PhD
Central Presbyterian Church, Mobile, August 12, 2007

What’s a Christian to do when...her mother and father reach an age when their health concerns no longer allow for independent living, and limited resources are torn between children and now parents?

Or when...his past as a not-yet Christian catches up with him, and introduces a dark cloud over the head of both him and his family?

Or when...she’s led by the Holy Spirit to go against the grain at work by not participating in a project that calls her Christian virtues into question?

What’s a Christian to do when the path forward seems uncertain, like peering down an unfamiliar road through thick fog? When we talk about faith it can seem so clear-cut, but when we’re confronted by realities that we thought we’d only hear about on the news, or witness in a movie, our ideas of what faith’s about, our experience of faith can be altogether different.

“Faith,” writes the author of Hebrews, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). “Faith,” writes James, “is dead without works” (Jas 2:26). Faith is the key to pleasing God, we hear from scripture (Heb 11:6) and only by faith will we inherit salvation (Eph 2:8). The Reformed tradition from which we come capitalizes on righteousness not by works, but by faith. Yet, we hear stories like that of George Müller and we stand amazed as if his story could not be our own.

George Müller lived in England during a time when times were rough for families, which led to an inevitable rise in the orphan population. Following what he determined was a call by God on his life to minister to these children he set out to found an orphanage in Bristol, but he did so without much money and those whom he knew had little means as well. Money being very tight, there were days when the children would eat one meal and he knew not from where the next meal would come. Month to month problems are one thing; when problems are from meal to meal that is a whole other issue. Yet Müller trusted God and spent his time praying. Time and again, without fail, funds sufficient for the next meal would arrive. Over twenty five years his orphanage grew from housing a handful of children to over seven hundred, from a few small rooms to three large buildings...all without having asked for a single donation. In his autobiography he wrote, “The more I am in a position to be tried in faith...the more shall I have the opportunity of seeing God’s help and deliverance...Every fresh instance in which He helps me and delivers me will lead toward an increase in my faith” (taken from Nabers, The Case for Character, 98).

Step-by-step is how we learn to trust God first with a little and then with our lives. A medical missionary once told me a story that for her was as profound a lesson in faith as she had ever had. She was in Africa during a time of great civil and political unrest. One night she and her team were the targets of a group of gunmen who had every intent of kidnapping them. They received a warning that there was a possibility of their kidnapping, but the call came nearly at the same time that they heard jeeps from the distance rumble closely to their housing complex and stop. Without options for escape they decided to pray. They spent the night praying, and no one from the jeeps came into the housing complex and eventually they heard the jeeps leave. It was a mystery what had happened, or rather had not happened, to them until she was on furlough visiting one of the sponsoring churches. As she told her story to the group of supporters she used this account as an example of how God worked miracles on the mission field.

A man came up to her after her talk and asked her if the incident involving the threat of kidnapping happened on a particular night. She said that it was, amazed that he would know this fact. “Interesting,” he said to her. “That was the same morning that I woke up much earlier than I do normally and felt compelled to pray for people who were in trouble.” Faith is about doing something even when we have no reason to understand why God calls us to do it.

Martin Luther wrote that faith “is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times” (Comm. Romans, xvii). Pope John Paul II wrote a letter of great notoriety in 1992 titled “The Splendor of Truth,” in which he described faith as “a lived knowledge of Christ...and a truth to be lived out. A word...is not truly received until it passes into action, until it is put into practice. Faith is a decision involving one’s whole existence…. It entails an act of trusting abandonment to Christ” (quoted in Nabers, 101).

Faith isn’t about taking steps because I know the outcome or am worthy. It’s about doing the thing that brings glory to God even if the outcome isn’t altogether certain. Faith takes courage. This is the lesson that Joshua had learned through his sojourn with the Hebrews first as one of Moses’ key leaders and second as the man who led them after Moses’ death. When the rubber meets the road, our faith is either courageous; it either trusts completely in God’s ability do the amazing thing; or its not faith at all.

Drayton Nabers tells the story of a woman named Mother Antonia who voluntarily lived in a prison cell in order to better minister to the needs of the inmates in one Mexican prison. The night of Halloween in Spanish cultures is known as the Night of the Dead, and in 1994 there was a riot in this prison that threatened to become a massacre on the Night of the Dead. Mexican SWAT teams gathered outside the prison, while prisoners readied themselves to fight. Mother Antonia was outside the prison and asked to be admitted to the prison to talk to the prisoners. The warden aceeded with hesitation, making sure she knew her life was not in his hands. The prisoners who first saw Mother Antonia were surprised to see her and begged her to leave lest she be killed. But she advanced toward the main body of rioting prisoners. “What’s going on here?” she asked. “Mother,” said one inmate named Blackie, “we’ve been up here so long they’ve forgotten us. The water’s gone, and we’re desperate.” “We can take care of those things, but this isn’t the way to do it. You need to give me your guns.” “Mother,” Blackie said softly, “as soon as we heard your voice we dropped the guns out the window.” Courageous faith made a difference that night for a town, numerous police, and a group of desperate prisoners. Where will courageous faith make a difference in your life, or in your church?

If faith didn’t involve risk then it wouldn’t be faith; it’d be calculation and we’d get the credit. Courageous faith results in God’s glory because despite all odds the Spirit worked it all out for good. This is what lies at the heart of what James is talking about in James 2. It takes courage to unshackle ourselves from our security and familiar ground to trust God to come through for us, empower us, give us the words, the money, and the solid ground when we can’t put our hands or eyes on it. That’s the type of faith that pleases God. Is there an area or decision that’s asking you to show some courageous faith?

There’s a wonderful Proverb that states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). Do you trust in God, or do you trust in yourselves? Does your security rest upon material things like money, family, friends, or feeling good through purchases? Courageous faith isn’t something we can speak of in church and then go from here living differently. What’s God calling you to that requires your courageous trust in Him to make it happen? You can be sure that whatever it is it doesn’t come close to the amount of courage it took for Christ to willingly lay himself on the cross so that you could have eternal life. Consider that.

Faith involves risking much because its first question isn’t focused on security. Rather, the most important question you can answer in your life is the same one you answered at your baptism “Do you trust Jesus to be all that He promised to be to you?” Do you trust Jesus with your life? With your past? With your money? With your time? With your security? With your career? With your relationships? Wherever you’re being called to exhibit courageous faith, say ‘Hallelujah’ because it means that God hasn’t given up on you yet. The communion we are about to take is entirely about the fact that God hasn’t given up on you, so let’s not give up on God. And for this all God’s people say, Amen.