Measured According to Faith

“Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.” -Romans 12:3

It’s not really clear whether we are measuring ourselves by the faith we are given, or measuring our actions in accordance with our faith, but because I believe God is just and we have free will, I think it’s the latter. The former, you can’t change your score - you are measured BY how much faith you have. The latter, you can change it; you are measured ACCORDING to your faith. 

After following God into crazy circumstances for so long, I have found Carla and I have a deeper level of latent faith. I know people who are hugely stressed out if they don’t have money after 6 months. Others are constantly stressed over retirement. If we are judging according to faith, then my act of obedience and faith in trusting God over thousands in a week can be equivalent of someone else’s faith of trusting Him when they don’t know where the money will come from in 6 months. Everyone has a different threshold, their limit of when they freak out into anxiety--and what they freak out over. 

I have, time and again, seen God pull through in bringing the right people, dealing with documents and licenses, resolving intense disputes, and uniting the church. Someone without the same experiences is judged at a lower level because they haven’t seen the things I have.

There is an expectation God has for us that when we see a miracle or His provision in a powerful way that we are changed. Think of Jesus in the boat and the disciples were worried about bread. Jesus’s questioning brought them back to the 2 instances where he multiplied bread then said they didn’t understand. If they had really understood the miracle, they would no longer have been worried about bread!

How about Chorazon and Besaida? “If the miracles performed in you were done in Sodom and Gammorah, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes” (Matt 11:21). They would be judged harsher because they saw the hand of God and didn’t believe. To really understand a miracle means understanding it’s a revelation of an aspect of God, and that our faith grows in that situation.

There are a couple interesting points about faith to pull out here:

• Faith should be continuously growing. Just like in weight lifting, if you are not able to lift more this month than last, you’re doing something wrong. In the same way, if our circumstances aren’t building and growing our faith muscles, we are doing something wrong and have an opportunity to live differently.
• We need to be kind and gracious to the people who have less faith than us. Make a point to see where your friend’s faith is at and encourage and support them to take the next step.
• The measure of heaven is faith. It’s not money or power or programs or numbers, but how we make decisions based on what God says and not on what our eyes see. Sadly for those of us who like numbers, that is difficult to quantify, but we always need to keep this in mind.
• Don’t judge others too harshly, especially if they came from a more difficult background - after all, we need to look through heaven’s eyes. However, we can expect everyone following Christ to be growing in faith.