Faith or Fake?

What do we do when God’s promises collide with a physical reality that seems to be distinctly different? Recently there has been a movement in the church that encourages believers to hold tight to promises of financial prosperity and physical health in spite of the physical circumstances they encounter. So is this denial of physical reality faith, or is it fake?

While this approach to faith is unhealthy if overemphasized, we are also wrong to entirely condemn it. Are we not told that “...faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” and that we are to “...walk by faith, not by sight”? (Heb. 11:1b, 2 Cor. 5:7b) Our greatest heroes of the faith display confidence in the Lord, in spite of their circumstances and conventional wisdom. What would have happened if Noah stopped building the ark as the years passed without rain?

So when do we stop building the ark and deal with “reality”? When is our “faith” really just “fake” (or a denial of reality)? Even if I knew the answer, this topic is too complex to cover completely in a blog or even a book. However, I have written this post (and the following two posts) because there are two spiritual realities that we can, and must hold on to regardless of what is happening around us. These realities are that God is good that God is with us.

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