WHAT IS AUTHENTIC FAITH?

“For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ … inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”(Matthew 25:35-36, 40).

What is authentic faith? Have you ever wrestled with this question? Throughout the years, as I’ve followed the Lord, I’ve repeatedly prayed to understand more about the illusive depths of what constitutes truly authentic faith.

For me, discovering the mystery of faith is much like peeling an onion—as each layer of faulty perceptions are stripped way, you get closer to the core (God). When I was first saved, walking in faith was about taking on a new way of life filled with spiritual practices that included learning how to pray, to read God’s word, fellowship and serve.

Later, I became more acquainted with the aspect of Christ’s Lordship over my life. Faith then involved an awakening to the battle between the flesh and the spirit, and the aspiration to lead a more obedient life.

In time I encountered some bitter disappointments that caused my passion for Christ to dull. I entered into a spiritual wilderness void of emotion. All the activities I had once enjoyed became chore-like and rote. But in that place, God was teaching me about another facet of faith, as I learned the importance of trusting His word instead of relying upon what I could feel.

Years later, I began to see various inconsistencies in what other Christians believed. This plunged me into a renewed passion for the scriptures and faith became a pursuit of doctrine.

A FACET OF FAITH

But when I reached the season of my prolonged medical problems, a drought of unanswered prayer, empty doctrine, lost hope, and feelings of abandonment caused me to question everything I’d believed up to that point. If the God I had been following would allow this much suffering, then He was not the God I had thought Him to be. And if that were the case, then I was not the Christian I thought myself to be…so who was I? I had lost all sense of spiritual equilibrium. A week’s stay in the hospital during one Christmas season brought this crisis to a head. I found myself pleading again with God: “What is authentic faith?”
I’ll never forget how God met me in that hospital and answered my question in a most astonishing way.

On Christmas Eve, an unexpected visitor showed up at my hospital room. Alana was a woman I had met a few years before at church. We had taught classes together a couple times, but we did not know each other well, nor did we socialize together.

Of all the people I knew well at that time who never visited me in the hospital, Alana, an almost virtual stranger, drove over an hour from her home, delaying a Christmas dinner with her husband, to comfort me--a sick acquaintance. The kindness of her gesture brought me to tears of sheer gratitude—to think that anyone would make such a sacrifice for me.

And I heard God whisper in my heart, “Now that is authentic faith.”

That night, Alana was the body of Christ in action. She will probably never know how that one selfless act impacted my understanding of Jesus forever. And I realized that if it were not for my suffering, I would never have learned what it's like to be on the receiving end of God’s tender love through such a faithful servant.

“If you truly want to experience an authentic faith, go where people are hurting the most and get involved in their lives. You’ll not only see God at work, you’ll also gain his heart and very likely become transformed in the process.” –Gary Thomas in Authentic Faith.