Balancing Your Spiritual Scales
“Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. “ Hebrews 11:1 Amplified Bible
Faith is our assurance of the promises of God; it gives substance to those things that we cannot see in the spiritual realm. When you believe the Word, you give substance to those promises that you cannot see, those things already established for you in the spiritual realm. That truth should be a great encouragement but most people, while believing it, do not feel as though they have enough faith to bring those things to pass. Most people would say to themselves, “Well that kind of faith is for the few, not for people like me! I certainly do not possess that kind of faith”.
Whether you realize it or not, right now you possess that kind of faith. Romans tells us that we have all been given the measure of faith. That means that there is one measure of faith, it is universal, and it is from Jesus. As a believer you have that measure of faith. If you had faith to believe in Jesus as your risen Lord and Savior, then you have already demonstrated powerful faith. You had to believe for something that you could not see and that goes against the logic of the world. If you had enough faith to believe that the sacrifice of Jesus has provided you freedom from sin and death, then you have more than enough faith to see the promises of God come in fullness to your life.
You see, the problem that most of us have is not that we need more faith, we have all the faith that we need. The problem is that we need to eliminate doubt. Our daily battle is against doubt and unbelief. Remember the father who spoke with Jesus when He had come down from the Mount of Transfiguration? His son was demon possessed and the disciples could not deliver him. Jesus asked the father to believe and he responded, “I believe, but help me in my unbelief”. This statement sums up the battle that we all face daily. We believe, but that faith is often outweighed by our doubts and unbelief.
It is like the scales that are used to weigh things with counter balance. Picture the “T” shaped scale that holds the two circular platforms that hang from either side of the “T”. If something on one side of the scale outweighs what is on the other side, the scale tips in that direction. This is the way our faith and unbelief plays out daily. On the one side of the spiritual scale, you have your faith. It is all that you need and there is no more. Then on the other side of the scale, we put all the doubts and unbelief. If there is more doubt than faith guess what happens? The scale tips that direction and your faith is overwhelmed. What we need to do is eliminate the unbelief and thus tip the balance to the faith side where we can see our faith make the substance of what is not seen. Eliminate doubt by prayer and time in the Word and you will recalibrate the spiritual scale to the victorious faith side.
J Todd Hostetler