It’s not the size of your faith, it’s the object.

Many a preacher has said something like “If we could take an elevator and lower it into the depths of hell to hear the screams of those who are in eternal torments, we would be motivated to tell others about the gospel.” This sounds so correct to our ears. If I could just experience X, Y, or Z it would lead me to believe God more and live a better Christian life. Yet many times throughout the Bible we see this to not be true.   The children of Israel witnessed one of the most powerful miracles at the Red Sea, yet, almost immediately lost their faith in the wilderness.  In the passage about Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus was very clear. If the rich man’s family won’t believe the prophets, they won’t believe at all, even though one were sent from the grave.

The NT Jewish leaders are another prime example of this. They saw first hand what Jesus did: the miracles, the healings, even the raising of dead people back to life. Yet most of them stubbornly refused to acknowledge and bow to his Lordship. Quite the opposite: they brazenly dared to put Him to death. (Though, they were quite cowardly about it. Carrying out their misdeeds in the dark of night. Funny how they feared the people more than their creator.)  We as His children (even well-meaning preachers) can fall into the same deceitful trap (e.g. the sermon illustration in the beginning of this blog post).  If we don’t believe God’s Word (in the sense of walking in obedience to it) merely because it’s God’s Word, then we won’t believe even if we were caught up to the third Heaven or lowered down to the lowest Hell, or had an angel appear at the foot of our bed at night. After all, that’s what faith is: the evidence of things not seen.  Ask God for the faith to believe His Word and the strength to walk in obedience without the need for signs, wonders, and “holy gimmicks.”.