The 2 Kinds of Faith

"Unanswered prayer stands between the individual and a faith life."

That is the opening sentence of a booklet by E.W. Kenyon titled The 2 Kinds of Faith.

I have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on that supposition. How many, I wonder, are involved enough in their Christian walk to have this kind of thought rise to the surface of their consciousness? In our society today there is such an excess of plenty that one can obtain an acceptable level of living purely by osmosis. It is easy then to say, "Praise the Lord!" because it is obvious it came from Him and, after all, they DID pray for it.

There is a division at that point in life, however. On the one hand there are those as above who get what they are satisfied with in a reasonable amount of time and simply go on living as always. These are the same people that populate the "Success" seminars and make all the positive thinking preachers (religious or secular) rich.

The other side of the split is those who do not obtain what they want or need. Out of the many, many books dealing with the subject of unanswered prayer the overwhelming majority present the solution as some form of sin correction rather than dealing with the root of prayer- faith.

This booklet provides one of those light bulb moments in understanding the workings of faith. In it is presented the contrast between mere "Mental Assent" and "Faith."

The most basic point of relevance regarding these two reveals itself in the Bible teaching about Jesus. How many people give mental assent to the truths regarding Jesus, yet never truly exercise faith in Him for their personal salvation?

Such a person will always be separated from God-

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "but the righteous man shall live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17)

A Mustard Seed

Sometimes it seems that I think about things other people just pass over. I am not always sure if I just missed the point, or if everyone else didn't know there was a point.

"Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matt 17:20)

How big is a mustard seed?

And move a mountain ?!!!?

I remember a time when I was praying for the faith to move my truck when it broke down! (It didn't budge.) Obviously I have nothing remotely close to "size of a mustard seed" faith.

So is faith big and small, or great and little?

Either way, how do I get more faith?!!! I don't really care to move mountains, but gee, everyday things are really wearing me out.

Here I will go back to my opening, this is where I seem to veer off away from other people. That is because this really bothers me. I just don't understand this, and I seriously want to.

How am I going to get my obviously microscopic faith larger?

I see people who offer up or attempt various methods:

Some people pray. And they pray really hard, too. I can tell because of how loud and how serious their voices get.

They call that faith, but it just looks like they have finally convinced themselves- and whatever happens is fine with them.

Pray harder + think harder → more faith.

Other people talk. By that I mean they are convinced that "the power of death and life are in the tongue" (Prov 18:21) These people end up either like the Positive Thinking teachers whose only ccomplishment is making money selling books to people desperate to be "successful." Or they end up like the "white" witches, casting spells with their words to get what they want.

It doesn't seem to me like either of these have anything to do with God.

Jesus said to "Have faith in God." (Mark 11:21) God, not words, or any other thing I can imagine or work hard at.

Here I come to the end of this post.

What? you thought I had some quick, smart answer to give you?

No. This is way too important for something I can just come up with. (Even though I have not just started to think on this. Thirty years and enough books on prayer and faith to fill a library have gone into my desperate pursuit of faith.) Plus, I said in the beginning, this bothers me. A lot. Because I really don't have the answer to faith that "will move mountains."

I do promise though to add some later posts with very serious, and helpful, information and ideas for you to aid you in your pursuit of "faith the size of a mustard seed."