God is very big on faith. It is the way we connect with Him and it is even the way we are saved. In human relationships faith, or trust, is a precious commodity as well. We might love someone with all our heart but still not trust them because we deem them untrustworthy. A mother may be willing to die for her wayward adult son, but not trust him enough to let him live with her because of his destructiveness. But God is not destructive, just mysterious and challenging, and trusting Him takes time.
This is why He goes to great lengths to develop faith in us. After we have been following Jesus for several years God will typically take away our sense of His presence in order that we might learn deeper faith. He does this because He loves us and wants to be more united with us. And He does this even though we have been faithful in our disciplines of prayer and fellowship and scripture study. So if God seems more distant than before, it is an opportunity to develop deep faith. When the sense of, or confidence in, His presence disappears for many months we refer to it as a dark night. God does many things in dark nights but this post focuses on faith.
This is the time for us to learn “dark faith”. This is in keeping with II Cor. 5:7 which states that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” In dark faith we trust God and His written Word even though it feels untrue or distant. We exercise raw trust that is not so much in our mind or heart but more from our innermost being. We choose to operate from that deep place of faith while all our contrary thoughts and feelings we ignore and let them flow away from us. In this way we learn to connect with God at a deeper and stronger level of ourselves. As with everything else God does, the ultimate purposes of teaching us deeper faith are to Christform us so that we can be more united to Him and shine as members of God’s community of love.
“We choose to operate from that deep place of faith while all our contrary thoughts and feelings we ignore and let them flow away from us.”
We can understand the importance of dark faith when we think about someone we are close to such as a spouse. We want our loved one to trust us even when they aren’t feeling good feelings about us. We don’t want them to doubt our character or commitment just because we haven’t done something wonderful to bless them recently. God is the same way. He wants our faith to be based on a deep abiding conviction of who He is. Wouldn’t our faith in God be kind of wimpy if it faded whenever we weren’t feeling His presence or some other spiritual sweetness? We would be like a child with a sweet tooth who throws a tantrum when they can’t have candy.
As we transition to deeper faith we will not feel the subjective assurance that we have had before. Instead, it will feel risky and uncertain. It is the nature of faith that it grows when we step outside our comfort zone. It is new territory and our mind and emotions will naturally fear it and resist it. So we need to learn to get used to some different feelings when it comes to dark faith. We need to accept feelings that are contrary to what we prefer. So we need to accept feeling:
- Unstable
- Uncertain
- Unclear
- Uncomfortable
- Unsure
- Unsafe
- Insecure
And when it comes to sensing God He will seem:
- Unseen
- Unknown
- Unsolvable
- Unfelt
If we are willing to embrace this more challenging way of thinking and feeling then we will develop greater faith and in time we will find ourselves with a deeper and more gratifying relationship with God. New life will come as we die to our old ways.
This resonates deeply with me. I recognised all aspects of what you say here and I am grateful to be able to say “God sent me down into a darkness and tumbleweed blew through my daydreams where there had previously been a close, warm protector. I went, reluctantly, but now I know it was the best thing he could have done for me. My faith is my most precious possession and his promises obliterate my worst fears. I feel a powerful love and it carries me.❤