I Was Just Thinking … About Day to Day Faith

For those who patiently trust him, God promises many wonderful blessings. He promises  that all things will work together for good to those who love him (Romans 8:28)—which surely includes trusting him. We may, however, have to wait a while to see how some distress that presently weighs upon us will bring us to enjoy a benefit far greater than we could have had otherwise. For example, after Joseph’s brother sold him into slavery in Egypt, he had to wait many years, some of them languishing in a dungeon, before he could say to those brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are this day.” He was able to say this because God had finally raised Joseph out of the dungeon and given him a place of high authority in Egypt, from which he eventually came to rule all of Egypt, and was thereby able to provide food for his famine-stricken father and brothers, and their families.

God also promises that he will “change our lowly body to be like [Christ’s] glorious body, by the power which enables him to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:21). But in the meantime, we who have been born again and “have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). There are many Christians who are suffering from some disease or infirmity which deprives them of a substantial part of life’s joy.  While there is healing in the atonement, for some it is not God’s will to impart this healing until they receive their resurrection bodies.

Then, too, the Bible contains many promises that God will answer prayer. Sometimes a prayer is answered even before we ask (Isaiah 65:24) and sometimes God answers prayer as we ask (Genesis 24:45). But there are also times when it is far better for God not to answer our prayers as quickly as we would like. In such cases, “If [the answer to prayer] seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not be late” (Habakkuk 2:3). During the delay we should be “constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12).

The complete fulfillment of many of God’s promises awaits the future. Then he will give us the enjoyment of all the benefits of our salvation. Paul said, “We were saved in hope of the resurrection: but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what is already seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, then with patience we wait for it” (Romans 8:24–25).

Nevertheless, the Bible also says that “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Thus, if the fulfillment of too many of God’s promises will only come in the distant future, some of us might not have enough staying power to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). There is, however, at least one promise God makes whose very nature requires an immediate fulfillment. This is Jesus’ promise, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give shall never be thirsty, because the water that I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).

It is interesting that the word “never” in this promise translates a Greek idiom that stresses the impossibility that something could ever happen. So Jesus’ statement could well be translated, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall provide shall by no means ever be thirsty.” Stated positively, this promise declares that as we believe in Jesus we will always be able to slake the thirsts that arise in our hearts, so that we find contentment and joy in whatever we are doing from day to day. In such a promise there can be no time-lapse between our believing it and its fulfillment. If there were, then the promise that we would by no means ever be thirsty would be false, because there would be a time during which we believed the promise but still thirsted.

For every one of us, almost every day, there come times when the circumstances surrounding us, or the tasks occupying us, create a thirst, a longing for a sense of peace and fulfillment. So it’s a great comfort to know that as we trust Jesus to be working for our good at such times, the thirst of our hearts vanishes.

Perhaps we are engaged in a task which presents such difficulty that our hearts despair. So we thirst, wishing that somehow we might be able to rest or play and not have to engage in such toil. At such a time we believe in Jesus by reminding ourselves of his promises to provide us with strength. We exercise faith by focusing our attention on verses like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and “As yours days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). Or we believe in Jesus by taking him up on the promise, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). Or perhaps believing in Jesus means asking whether attempting such a task at that time is his will, for he promised that if we are yoked together with him and thus doing his will, we will find rest for our souls in that labor (Matthew 11:28–30).

Then there are occasions when we are threatened with having time on our hands. There may be a number of tasks that we would like to accomplish, but we simply have no heart or energy to engage in any of them. Time spent doing nothing, however, can create great heart-thirst. The famous Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal observed that “if a … laborer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing [and then see how much he complains!].” But the way to believe in Jesus at such a time, and thus satisfy the heart-thirst of idleness, is to ask the Lord for guidance into some activity in which we can find peace and rest. It is truly amazing how the Lord, who promised to “guide us continually” (Isaiah 58:11), shows us how to occupy such times either by bringing to mind some task and giving us the heart to carry it through, or by providing some means of diversion so that we regain strength to carry on our tasks.

Jesus’ promise that we shall by no means ever remain thirsty is a great comfort, then, as we meet the exigencies of each day. It is of the greatest importance that we keep this promise of John 4:14 in mind, for as the thirst of our hearts is continually satisfied, we then have that staying power to remain patient until God fulfills all the other things that he has promised.

Daniel P. Fuller
February 1978