Often as Christians we speak of wanting more faith, deeper faith, stronger faith. Pastor Michael Lawrence points us to a better way:
Do you wish for stronger faith, for more faith? I want you to notice that here in Galatians, as far as Paul is concerned, the important thing isn’t the quantity or quality of your faith. It’s the object of your faith that counts. Abraham believed strongly in God. He didn’t have faith in faith. He heard God’s words of promise, and he believed them because God said them. He trusted the character and the power of the one who spoke those words. Do you want to strengthen your faith? Do you want more faith? The answer isn’t to focus on your faith. The answer is to set your mind on God in Christ. Meditate on his character, consider his words, reflect on his faithfulness, goodness, and mercy to you in Christ, and see what happens to your faith.
—Pastor Michael Lawrence, in Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence, It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), p. 183-184. Emphasis in original.
So in the rest of this section or chapter, did he mention Hebrews 11 & 12? Because when he mentions focus I thought of the beginning of Hebrews 12 where it speaks of fixing our eyes on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith (as opposed to fixing our eyes on our faith itself)… and, of course, Hebrews 12 follows up chapter 11 which is all about faith including Abraham whom he also mentioned in the quote you posted. And so now when I think of Hebrews 11 on faith followed up by 12 focusing on Jesus who initiates and brings to completion our faith – well, I’d just never made that connection before! Sweet!
Miss LA,
He doesn’t end up talking about Hebrews, largely because his focus is on explaining and applying the passage in Galatians (the book is a series of sermons on Christ’s substitutionary atonement, preached from key Old and New Testament passages), but the passage from Hebrews definitely fits. This was a tremendously encouraging book throughout, as it reminds us of the seriousness of sin and the astonishing kindness of God in reconciling us to Himself at the cost of His own Son. It’s never been hard to be distracted by the world around us, but perhaps especially now, with wave upon wave of entertainment and other data, it’s good to be reminded often.
[…] Had a small revelation this morning while reading a friend’s blog. He was quoting a pastor who asks “do you want stronger, more faith?” and then turns around and explains through scripture (referencing Galatians) that the point isn’t to focus on faith, but to instead “set your mind on God in Christ.” (Read the original blog post here.) […]