The Fuel for Faith
~ Patience ~
The old saying “the only things for sure in life are death and taxes” might need to be updated to include “and gas prices will rise every week”. Everyone in this country is affected by the rising price of gas these days. But, despite prices approaching $4 a gallon, gasoline is a necessity and we must keep buying it to function. We can eliminate many other expenses by simply avoiding making certain purchases, but until new and affordable automotive technologies come to the market, gasoline is required to fuel our cars and trucks.
Much like our dependency on gasoline to keep us moving on the road, there is a fuel that is required for us to move forward spiritually. Before we discuss this very important fuel, let’s take a look at the engine which utilizes it. Our “spiritual engine”, so to speak, is our faith. Imagine a car without an engine. It would get us nowhere. On the other hand, a car with an engine won’t run either without fuel. We must have faith to live. God expects His people to live by faith. He tells us in His Word to “live by faith” in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. Our faith is the source of all our beliefs about God. But, to keep our spiritual engine running, we have to keep our tank full of the right fuel.
Hebrews 10:36 tells us what fuel we need: “for you have need of patience”. Patience is the fuel for our faith engine. Without patience, our tank is empty and our engine won’t operate. Patience is defined in the Greek as “cheerful endurance.” It’s what will keep us moving forward in life. Let’s look at some Scriptures that emphasize patience. In Hebrews 6:12 we find this instruction: “that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” 1 Timothy 6:11 tells us to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.” The Bible even refers to God as “the God of patience”. James adds that “the trying of our faith works (results in) patience.” In Hebrews 12:1&2, we find out that we need “patience” in order to run our faith race. Can you start to see a connection between faith and patience? The two go together. In fact, the minute we have lost our patience, we have lost our faith.
You might be wondering about that last statement. How can we lose our faith by losing our patience? Let’s explain this principle by looking at an example of running an actual race. But, in this race you are the only runner and it is a marathon. Since there is no competition, as long as you cross the finish line, you win! It doesn’t matter how long it takes. So, you start running. You feel great because you know that you are destined to be the winner of the race. You are running strong, with a lot of energy. But because a marathon is 26 miles, you begin to tire several hours into it. Your thoughts soon shift from the glorious time you will have accepting the prize to doubts of your ability to make it to the end. And before you get even half way there, you get really tired. You don’t have anything left, and you quit. And because you never crossed the finish line, you lost the one-man race.
This simple illustration is a picture of what happens to us spiritually when we don’t obtain the promises of God in our lives. His promises are at the finish line. Faith is simply seeing those promises at our “finish line”. In our faith race we know we are the winners because “Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). You are guaranteed to win this race, as long as you finish. Galatians 6:9 tells us to “not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. So, why do we faint? Remember the definition of patience given earlier: “cheerful endurance”. In order to win your faith race you need some cheerful endurance in your tank. The biggest enemy of endurance is the passage of time. Thinking about how long it takes to get to the end will cause us to get our eyes off the finish line, growing weary and tempted to give up.
There is good news! Our faith race is not based on time, just finishing! So, even if you do stop halfway to the finish line, you can simply refuel your tank with patience and get back into the race. Remember, It takes both faith and patience to obtain the promises (Heb 6:12). So be encouraged! In God’s Book, you win!
