On Matters of Faith

The mystery of God’s interaction in the world should be a place of fascination and intrigue for us all. How does the God of the cosmos, as big as he is, relate with human beings, as small as we are? It’s a fair question.

For the Christian, the answer has to be via faith. Faith is the vehicle through which God’s love and power is shown. You’ll understand then why I was encouraged whilst reading through Steve Chalke’s book, An Intelligent Church, to come across a helpful quote by Scottish Theologian, Robert Davidson. ‘Faith does not depend on our grasp of God, but on God’s grasp of us.’ That’s it in a nutshell. Our ability to know God at any level is completely his doing. The initiative lies with him. The fact that God has chosen to make himself known tells us something about his nature and character. Our journey of faith links us up to his initiative as we move forward to search out in what way and to what extent can we know this God?

Jesus had a lot to say about this. It is possible to know God personally and intimately. Jesus both modelled and taught this as the truth. The fact that at times our own faith feels far away from that truth reminds us of the importance of the journey and the need to continue travelling. The fact that, in Davidson’s words, ‘faith does not depend on our grasp of God, but on God’s grasp of us’, should lead us to the place of worship as we are reminded that even when we feel faithless it is within his nature to remain faithful – he just cant’ help himself. Now there’s a comforting thought.