Your Faith Counts

In 1939 the great thinker Albert Einstein conducted a sober ceremony at the New York World’s Fair. A large tube was being buried some thirty feet below the site of the fair. Provisions had been made that the tube be unearthed by anthropologists in the year 6939. The tube contained, among other documents, a brief message from Einstein. It said, “Everybody lives in fear of being eliminated from the economic cycle. We live in fear and terror for the future…we live in the dark and we die in the dark.” 

Actually, Einstein echoed what the Bible had said ages before. Romans 8:18-27, speaks of “our present sufferings…” and “creation subjected to frustration and the bondage to decay …as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Believers, too, know hardships and fear. Paul adds, "But we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly…”.

We all know these feelings. Safety, security, prosperity, acceptance, and recognition mean a lot to us. Will sickness and suffering enter our home? Will our children come to face hardships and misfortunes? Can the company stave off bankruptcy? Will the problems of our congregation never go away? Will the meaninglessness of life always prevail?

This is an election year in the U.S. Candidates for office make bold promises. They seem to imply that, once elected, they will provide bread and well-being. We take that with a grain of salt  but there is no getting away from: we seek goodness and prosperity. We are basically insecure people.

To all of us now, Romans 8 has additional good news. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor any power…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This promise implies a condition. In all our hardships we must go to our heavenly Father, share our fears with Him, and seek his help.

To be confessional believers also means that we confess our needs to Him.