"Faith can do anything!" a friend recently exclaimed to me upon hearing the story of Jesus' resurrection power in my life. (I share this with her permission.) "Faith can move mountains." [1]
But is that quite right?
Is our faith the thing that moves mountains, or is it only an ingredient in mountain-moving?
I think this may be a similar expression to that other Christian nugget: "Prayer moves the arm of God."
Yet God is not a giant robot in the sky who only acts when we press His prayer button. Prayer is so remarkable because the One we’re talking with is remarkable. Whenever a life brushes up against that of the Creator, extraordinary things happen.
In the same way, faith is not the source of miracles. Nor is it a mechanism for manipulating God into doing what we want. God cannot be manipulated; if we think He can, the god we are thinking of is no god at all—he's on par with the ancient man-made idols who could be bribed with sacrifices of food and virgins to do human bidding.
As the song goes:
[He is] not a God created by human hands
[He is] not a God dependent on any mortal man
[He is] not a God in need of
Anything we can give [2]
He is the One who created us. We cannot bargain with, cajole, or coerce Him. He knows the inner recesses of our hearts that even we do not fully comprehend.
This can be a scary and threatening reality for those whose thoughts and intentions are evil. But even the purest human heart holds the potential and tendency towards trying to get its own way.
This does not mean that faith cannot make requests. It does mean that faith does not exist for the goal of making a request, and it does not evaporate if the request is refused.
We may dress up our "I really want this" as "I have faith that God can give me this." But if this is uttered with the intention of showcasing faith in order to achieve a desired end, it is tainted.
Faith with an ulterior motive is not true faith.
Faith cannot be transactional.
If we try to make it so, we become as ridiculous as British Christian comedian, Adrian Plass, getting up in the middle of the night to hiss at a paperclip, demanding that it move, because he might not have enough faith to move a mountain, but—surely—he's got enough faith to stir a few office supplies! [3]
The truest faith approaches God in full submission. It asks Him, "What do You want me to ask for?"
And when God tells us His plans, faith says along with Mary, "I am the Lord's servant. May Your word to me be fulfilled." [4]
Faith is not the source of miracles. It is a source of joy to God.
It's what God does as a result of our faith that is often miraculous.
God so delights in our faith—it gives Him such pleasure—that his joy requires an outlet. He responds to it in explosive generosity.
And that is when we see mountains move.
Lord God, I come to You today to repent of the transaction that I have tried to make of my faith. I am not the master. You are. I'm to do Your bidding, not the other way around. Please help me to remember that I am not the owner of my faith. You are both its author and its perfecter. [5] Please plant obedience and submission in my heart, and show me how to nurture them so that they bloom into something honouring to You. Please let me dream the dreams You dream, and not content myself with my small-minded fantasies. Be my vision today, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.
NOTES
[1] See Matthew 17:20.
[2] My adaptation of William McDowell's "You are God Alone."
[3] Adrian Plass, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4 (Zondervan, 2005), 20–21.
[4] Luke 1:38, NIV.
[5] See Hebrews 12:2.
