Lesson 17: Faith That Survives

“My trust in God does not depend on exemption from suffering.”

To see why our confidence in God should endure all events and circumstances.

► Do you ever tell a bedtime story to children?

Here is a bedtime story for you:

Once there was a little girl named Lucy. Lucy was a very good girl. She never argued with her parents or teachers, and she liked broccoli and spinach. She was so good that the mayor of her town awarded her three gold medals: one for patience, one for diligence, and one for honesty. Lucy wore the medals always.

A rich man in the town owned a private park. He didn’t allow most people to walk there, but he heard about how good Lucy was, so he told her that she could walk in the park anytime she wanted. There were many trees in the park, but there were no flowers, because the rich man liked pigs, and had many pigs there. The pigs had dug up all the flowers long before, but the man decided that he would rather have pigs than flowers.

One day Lucy polished her medals and went to walk in the park. She saw the beautiful trees and the beautiful pigs. There were pigs of all sizes. There were pink ones, black ones, white ones, and spotted ones.

But then Lucy saw something that terrified her. It was a wolf who had come to catch a pig for his dinner. He had not yet seen Lucy, so she jumped behind a bush to hide. The wolf came closer and stopped, trying to decide which pig to eat. He smiled as he thought about how much he would enjoy his dinner.

Lucy was peeking out through the bush and saw the wolf smile. She saw his big teeth and gave a little shiver of fear. Unfortunately, when she shivered, her medal for diligence clinked against her medal for honesty, and the wolf heard the sound. He jumped over the bush and found Lucy. When he looked at Lucy he saw how good she was. He decided that she would be much better than a pig, so he ate her.

The next day when the owner of the park came to that spot, all he found remaining of Lucy was the medal for diligence, the medal for patience, and the medal for honesty.

► Would you tell your children a bedtime story like this? Why not?

This is not a bedtime story that most parents would tell to their children. We like stories that demonstrate that wrongdoing is punished and good is rewarded. Parents want children to think that’s what usually happens. But if our faith depends on a happy ending to every story, our faith doesn’t match real life.

If bad things do happen to people who don’t seem to deserve them, how should we approach life?

Christian faith is not:

• Irrational optimism (“Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”)

• Stern stoicism (“Life isn’t fair so you have to be tough.”)

• Mindless escapism (“Don’t remind me… I don’t want to think about it.”)

The most basic and most important kind of faith is a basic trust for God that endures no matter what is happening. A person with this enduring faith keeps obeying God.

Hebrews 11 describes many heroes of faith. They are people who by faith chose to serve God even when it meant they would suffer. We have the record of spiritual heroes who suffered, not because they lacked faith, but because they had it. Their faith made them willing to suffer and helped them to see beyond material things to the invisible and eternal.

Because of God’s justice, there will be a final judgment. Eternal rewards will be given, and eternal punishment will be pronounced. Faith in the justice of God helps us to endure the circumstances that do not always work out right in the short term.

► Read Job 1:1, 13-22.

The drama of the book of Job is introduced with the statements “There was a man,” and “Now there was a day.” First the character of Job is described in high terms. He worshipped God and shunned evil. But then there came a day when everything important to him except his faith was taken away.

It seems to us that for such a man there should never come such a day, right? When calamities come to somebody, we always look for a way to blame him for what happened to him. We do that partly to protect our belief that justice rules in the world, and partly to retain our sense of security. We want to think that those things won’t happen to us if we don’t deserve them. But faith should continue even if those things happen. The Bible gives Job as an example of a person with enduring faith (See James 5:11 and Job 42:7-8).

An evidence of faith is when the believer endures and keeps trusting God in all circumstances. If a person does not understand this kind of faith, he will only pray for a miracle when situations are bad, but God does not always take away problems with a miracle. Some people give up in discouragement because they think their faith is not working or that God has failed them. We need to remember the other ways that faith works.

A good story writer knows how to take the characters in his story through problems that seem to have no solution. At the end of the story, the writer surprises the readers. Real life seems to have many sad stories, but Christian faith is the confidence that God is writing the real end of the story.

A pastor and his wife Beth planted a church in California several years ago. It was a successful church plant, but some terrible things began to happen a few years into the experience. Their house was burned down. A few months later, the pastor was beaten unconscious by criminals. Then he was accused of crimes, thrown in jail, and later murdered, though the exact cause of death was never known. All of this occurred within about four years.

What has sustained Beth through all this trauma? To a great extent, faith in the character of God. She knows that,

• Since God is omniscient, he knows her situation intimately. God knew beforehand everything that would happen.

• Since he is sovereign, everything is under his control. He is still accomplishing his ultimate purposes for her life. Nothing has happened without God’s permission.

• Because God is all-wise, he is able to guide her in all the decisions she must make now that her husband is gone.

• Because God is omnipresent, he has always been with her. Even through the worst part of the trial she was aware that he was near and that everything was under his control.

• Since God is omnipotent, he can bring about great answers to prayer. She can pray with confidence that God will meet her needs, bring glory to himself, and advance the Kingdom of God through this situation.

• Because God is all-loving, he has been looking out for the best interests of Beth and her family. God kept his loving arms around them the entire time. God had a loving purpose for the evil things he allowed them to face.

• Because God is holy, he wants Beth to have pure motives, just as he has pure motives. God wants Beth to continue to walk closely with him, and be careful not to have any unholy attitudes as she deals with all her problems. He wants her to forgive the attackers, the arsonists, and the accusers.

• Since God is personal, he relates to Beth as a real Person. He wants her to deepen her personal relationship with him.

Faith is not a guarantee that we will be exempt from suffering. Faith is a confidence in the character of God that sustains us during times of suffering that we cannot explain.

The goal of this lesson was to correct the tendency to think that God should always remove problems instead of helping us to endure. Ask some members of the group to share:

► What are some examples of situations when faith helped you to endure?

Heavenly Father,

I want to trust you even when things happen that I don’t understand. I know that you are always taking care of me.

Help me to have the faith that endures so that I can keep following you in all circumstances.

Thank you for your faithfulness to me.

Amen

Read Hebrews 11. Notice how various people of faith persistently followed God’s directions because they trusted him.