Experience or faith?
It’s finished – the sermon I prepared for the Easter Sunday service. It talks about the power of the resurrection and how it is still a promise for my life as a follower of Jesus today. (See Ephesians 1, 19+20). I am excited about this truth and look forward to talking about it. Only … I feel a bit like a hypocrite. Because I have to admit: There are many areas in my life where I do not (yet) experience this power. Is it legitimate to talk about something that I can’t pass on as personal experience?
These thoughts are bothering me in the days leading up to the sermon. I am tossed back and forth and have doubts. Doubts about my legitimacy to preach this sermon, doubts about my “spirituality” and honesty, my authenticity, when I often don’t experience this resurrection power personally and yet talk about it.
So, one morning I’m sitting with my husband, with whom I regularly have “quiet time” after breakfast, and I tell him about my inner struggles. And that’s when he comes up with a sentence that somehow calms my inner self and that I keep reminding myself of over the following days. He draws a comparison and says: “When a blind person talks about colors, he can’t see them either, but they’re still there.”
This sentence is a liberation for me. Because: If I only base my faith in the power of God, in his reality and strength on my experiences, then it is a very fickle faith. Then God is great and strong when I experience answers to prayer and see miracles. But if I don’t have any such experiences, perhaps even over a long period of time, then God suddenly becomes smaller and smaller. But isn’t the life of faith about believing in God’s greatness and power and the truth in his word, even if I don’t experience it?
I want to have more of this faith. A faith that is based on God and his word and not (only) on my experiences.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 ©NIV
