A number of years ago...
Illustration
A number of years ago, the well-known preacher Henry Drummond preached a classic sermon titled "The Greatest Thing in the World." Drummond concluded his sermon with a school-science-project illustration. If you place a piece of iron in the presence of an electrified field, he said, that piece of iron itself will become electrified. And in the presence of that electrical field, it's changed into a magnet. As long as it remains in contact with that field of electromagnetic power, it will attract other pieces of iron to itself.
Many of us can remember making electromagnets in elementary-school science class. You take a big old iron nail, wrap a piece of wire around it, and attach both ends of the wire to the terminals of a dry-cell battery. In no time at all, that electrified nail is attracting all manner of paper clips, thumbtacks, and iron filings. Is the nail itself changed? Not one bit. It's the power flowing through it that makes the difference.
That's the way it is with faith. We all have it; but every so often, we doubt that we have it. We get all introspective, and ask ourselves, "Where's the faith? Do I still have it? Did I lose it? If so, can I find it again?"
Is it even possible to "lose" faith? Martin Luther didn't seem to think so. In an introduction to the book of Romans that Luther wrote for his 1522 German Bible, he said, "Faith is not what some people think it is -- They think that when you hear the Gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, 'I believe.' But because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing, and reform doesn't come from this faith. Instead, faith is God's work in us that changes us and gives us new birth from God -- It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active, and powerful thing, this faith."
Faith isn't a possession of ours in the first place. It's a spiritual power that originates with God and comes to us as a gift. What we must do is hook ourselves up to God's battery terminals, so the surge of spiritual energy will flow into us -- and, through us, to others.
Many of us can remember making electromagnets in elementary-school science class. You take a big old iron nail, wrap a piece of wire around it, and attach both ends of the wire to the terminals of a dry-cell battery. In no time at all, that electrified nail is attracting all manner of paper clips, thumbtacks, and iron filings. Is the nail itself changed? Not one bit. It's the power flowing through it that makes the difference.
That's the way it is with faith. We all have it; but every so often, we doubt that we have it. We get all introspective, and ask ourselves, "Where's the faith? Do I still have it? Did I lose it? If so, can I find it again?"
Is it even possible to "lose" faith? Martin Luther didn't seem to think so. In an introduction to the book of Romans that Luther wrote for his 1522 German Bible, he said, "Faith is not what some people think it is -- They think that when you hear the Gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, 'I believe.' But because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing, and reform doesn't come from this faith. Instead, faith is God's work in us that changes us and gives us new birth from God -- It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active, and powerful thing, this faith."
Faith isn't a possession of ours in the first place. It's a spiritual power that originates with God and comes to us as a gift. What we must do is hook ourselves up to God's battery terminals, so the surge of spiritual energy will flow into us -- and, through us, to others.
