Faith that Knows and Rests

Treasured Friends,

In a recent Sunday School class, one participant said: “Maybe I shouldn’t ask so many questions about why God does this or why He did that, but I should just trust.”

I suspect we’ve all had a similar thought at some point. “Can I be a Christian, and question?” “Is it wrong of me to try and better understand what’s at the core of my faith?”

Of course not! As the Apostle Peter counsels, “Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the reason for the hope that lies within you” (1 Peter 3:15-16). Notice what he’s saying. First, not everyone is going to share your beliefs, or understand where you’re coming from. This is why we are sent into the world as witnesses! Because not everyone has heard the good news.

But, second, it’s not just about having this hope, Peter says, it’s also about knowing the reason why. That’s what we have to be prepared to give: not just the nature of the hope, but the rationale behind it. It’s not just the house that we point to, but the foundation that undergirds it.

And how can we do that unless we know why we believe these things? And how can we know the why unless we do the hard work it takes to get there – the reading, the discussing, the examining, and, yes, even the questioning?

There is an aspect of faith that is very much about knowledge, and this is the faith we are sent to share.

But there is another aspect of faith that is about trust, and this is the faith only God can give. This is not so much the part of faith that knows – that seeks, that studies, that asks – but the part of faith that rests. It is the part of faith that is able to say, all the knowledge I can have of God will never surpass this one, most important thing: that God is God, and I am held by Him.

A great figure in church history said that faith seeks understanding: as a rational creature, I want to know why things are the way they are, and why I believe what I do. But faith also seeks to better know the God we love. And while there is much we can’t know because it remains hidden in Him, this much we do find: we know Him because He first knew us. And those He knows, He never forgets (Isaiah 49:15). And those He holds, He never lets them go (John 10:29).