Faith That Doesn’t Bow
I remember visiting with Oral Roberts at his home in California before he went to be with Jesus. As we discussed this topic of faith, I was initially shocked when he held up his right hand and said: “Ron, I’ve prayed for millions of people with this hand. In those prayer lines, in those tents, literally millions of people I laid hands on. Many of them were healed, but there were many more who weren’t healed. We would see dramatic healings—people whose legs didn’t work at all, and they stood up and walked. But there were many more who didn’t seem to have any manifestation of healing at all.”
Oral continued: “Ron, I don’t know why. I still had the same feeling of faith, the tingling in my hand, the same confidence as I prayed over these people. I don’t understand why. But it didn’t mean I would stop praying for the sick, because I know that God wants to heal the sick. So I just kept laying my hands on others.”
As I listened to him I thought, “This is the kind of confidence we must have in our God.”
Like Oral Roberts, we know what His will is, so we pray accordingly, but we don’t let the results affect us. We don’t let them determine whether we keep going, because if we did, we would be putting conditions on our God. Even if faith is the faith Jesus intended for us from the very beginning. It is the only kind of faith that bears up under our struggles. It is strong because it chooses to put confidence in the character of God even when we don’t understand our circumstances. It says, “I know He is good even when I don’t feel good.”
Struggles will come. Everyone knows somebody who has died prematurely. Too many people have been in horrible accidents that have left them maimed for life. When things like this happen, we ask the almost inevitable question: “Why?”
Through all the months of Hannah’s recovery—the operations and physical therapy and adjusting to her new world—that is the question that persisted: Why? Why would God allow such a seemingly senseless tragedy? Why would He allow these four young men, who were passionate about serving Him, to die? Why would He allow my daughter to endure such pain physically, emotionally and mentally? Why do bad things happen to good people?
When Katie and I found ourselves in the middle of a tragedy, we could not answer the why question. We knew we had to focus on what we knew instead of what we did not or could not know. We knew that Jesus loved us. We knew that He came and gave His life for us. We knew that He rose again. We knew He would come back for us, and we knew we would be with Him forever and ever.
Instead of focusing on the questions we could not answer, instead of focusing on explaining the unexplainable, we focused on the goodness of God. All the rest we left in His hands. We decided we were OK with not having all the answers. And somehow, focusing on what we did know assuaged the lingering pain of what we didn’t know.
A lot of people will try to offer explanations about why bad things happen to godly people, and they often have good intentions and good theology. I understand wanting desperately to find the good in terrible situations. But I know that there are a lot of people who experience tragedy and may never understand why. Still, they stand strong in their faith. So must we.
Jesus has invited us to follow Him with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength. He asks us to trust Him even when we don’t understand. He urges us to have so much confidence in Him that even when life seems to spin out of control—even if we end up in a furnace seven times hotter than anything ever experienced—we will not bow down. We will not stop following the only One who is worthy of all we have and all we are. By His grace, we choose even if faith.
Ron Luce is the co-founder and president of Teen Mania Ministries, one of the largest youth-ministry organizations in the United States.
Watch Ron Luce share more about how his faith was tested following his daughter’s plane crash at luce.charismamag.com
