Faith to be Peculiar?

Sometimes it takes more faith just to be nice than to move a mountain. I think we've all had those moments. You've just been so hurt, cheated, betrayed, whatever, that everything inside you is screaming to respond in a way that's, well, not exactly Christlike. Your heart feels smashed into a thousand pieces and your brain is on code red alert, "Defend yourself! Defend yourself!" At this moment, being gracious or kind or loving seems like pure idiocy. How better to guarantee that you will simply be hurt or taken advantage of again?

Jesus asked, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) I wonder what kind of faith he will be looking for. Matt. 7:22 says, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'" Clearly, these works outside of relationship will not impress Jesus. And my experience is that it doesn't impress the world much either.

Just like Jesus, the world is also looking to see if we really have that relationship. When they wonder if God is real and if the Gospel is true, they don't look for miracles as much as they look to see if Christians really look like Jesus. If God the Holy Spirit is real, then the evidence should be a transformed and "peculiar" people who know Jesus so well that they have enough faith to live according to his teaching. THAT is what takes faith.

Don't get me wrong. I love miracles and "power evangelism" as a way to demonstrate the goodness of God, but frankly, it doesn't take a lot of faith to pray for a miracle. Amazingly, I can watch God dissolve a tumor right under my fingertips, then go right back to my own self-centered thoughts. My battle for faith takes place in the deep places of my heart, not in public places of ministry. To live the "Sermon on the Mount" and not just brush it off as a hypothetical goal we should aim at but never expect to reach - now that takes faith! In the O.T. God said, "Come out from them and be a peculiar people..." I think Matthew 5-7 and elsewhere in the N.T. we are told exactly what "peculiar" is supposed to look like.

When I look at the Church and see it riddled with much of the same anger, bitterness, pride, greed and self-centeredness that characterizes the world, I have to wonder, "Will he find faith?" I can look in the mirror and ask the same question.

I want the kind of faith that pleases God. Faith to be peculiar. Faith to lay down my defenses and let him be my Shield. Faith to lay down my protective anger and let him be the One who holds my heart, safe in his love. Faith to lay down my rights and let him be my Reward.

Thank God, his work in me is a finished work, finished at the cross. But my heart's desire is that it will also be a manifest work in this life. He is faith-full. He will do it. Through all the bumps and bruises - all the crash-and-burns of this life - he is growing in us the faith to be peculiar.