“A weak faith may lay hold on a strong Christ”
I could have swore that this quote was from Richard Sibbes. I know for certain that Thomas Watson wrote it in his work A Body of Divinity. Regardless of where it came from I know that it has been used by God to encourage and strengthen my soul.
When I interviewed for my current position as associate pastor one of the questions asked me was this: What is the most important aspect of your faith? My response was simple. It’s object.
Of course you want to increase your faith. As faith increases our experience of God intends to increase. This seems to be what Paul was praying for when he prayed for the Ephesians that “the eyes of [their] hearts may be enlightened”. That’s a decent definition of faith: seeing Jesus with the heart. The result, says Paul, is that “you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…” In other words,
more faith—>greater sight—>deeper experience of the grace already received
So, we should passionately pursue an increase in faith. But we must constantly remember that our pursuit is a greater sight of faith’s object; namely, Jesus Christ.
For those that feel weak in faith be encouraged by the fact that the gospel is true in your life no matter if your trust in Christ is weak or strong. The hope of the gospel is fixed for all those that embrace Christ, even if that faith is no bigger than a mustard seed.
Our faith doesn’t save us. Our Savior does. And he is very strong. As Spurgeon once said:
Ah! the bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by their thousands, by their myriads; e’er since the day when Christ first entered into His glory, they come, and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners, and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support; it will bear me over as it has borne them.
Jesus is indeed Mighty to Save!
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Originally appeared here.
