An elder asked me Sunday, January 6th, if I thought Alabama could beat Notre Dame in the Championship game. I jokingly replied, “I’m leaving it in God’s hands.” Monday in the car, one of the girls said, “God doesn’t care about football.” She then added, “But if He did, He would pull for Alabama.”
A couple of elders that Sunday or Monday expressed their belief that Alabama would win. My orthodontist believed Alabama would win. Some friends believed Alabama would win. The ESPN analysts believed Alabama would win. All I could bring myself to say was, “I believe Alabama could win.”
Until Tuesday morning. Now, I can confidently say, “Yes, I believe Alabama is a better team. They’ll be ranked number 1 now.” I’ve seen Alabama play. I’ve seen Notre Dame play. I’ve seen Alabama play Notre Dame. Alabama could and did beat Notre Dame. I believe it, now. That’s ex post facto faith – faith expressed after the fact!
But is that faith? Do you trust God only after you see the results of your prayer? Is your Christianity expressed by – “I’ll believe it when I see it”? But that’s not faith is it?
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The Hebrew writer says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). My faith was not very strong because I did not want to get my hopes up. Plus, I did not have much confidence in other’s confidence, did I? If I could have spoken to someone omniscient who could have told me, “Yes, your team will win”, then I would have had stronger conviction.
But when it comes to God, we have strong reason to trust God – before the challenges of life confront us. God gave us the Bible to give us faith and to strengthen our faith (Romans 10:17). Every one of us can identify with at least one Bible character. We can learn to have a stronger conviction in God. An ex post facto faith is not strong enough to get you through life. Read the Bible and your faith will strengthen.
–Paul Holland
