Marking his centenary year, we reprint an extract from Dr. Lloyd-Jones's classic entitled Spiritual Depression. From Luke 8.22-25 he expounds Jesus' question to the disciples.
There are many Christians who get into difficulty because they clearly have not understood the nature of faith. 'Well', you may say, 'if they have not understood the nature of faith, how can they be Christians?' The answer is that what makes one a Christian is that one is given the gift of faith.
We are given the gift of faith by God through the Holy Spirit and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that saves us; nut that does not mean that we have fully understood the nature of faith. So it comes to pass that, while we may be truly Christian and genuinely saved, we may subsequently get into trouble with out spiritual experience because we have not understood what faith really is.
I do not know what you feel, but I never cease to be grateful to these disciples. I am grateful for the record of every mistake that they make, and for every blunder they ever committed, because I see myself in them. The Lord Jesus rebukes them because of their alarm, because of their terror, because of their lack of faith. Here they were in the boat with him, and the storm arose, and soon they were in difficulties. They baled out the water, but the boat was filling up and they could see that in a few moments it was going to sink. They had done everything they could, but it did not seem to be of any avail, and what amazed them was that the Master was still sleeping soundly in the stern of the vessel. So they awoke him and said: 'Master, Master, carest Thou not that we perish?' - are you unconcerned about it all? And he arose, and having rebuked the wind and the sea, he rebuked them. Like many others in Scripture the disciples were going through a trial of their faith.
Negatively
What is the nature of faith, the character of faith? Let me first of all put it negatively. Faith is not a matter of feelings only, faith takes up the whole man including his mind, his intellect and his understanding. It is a response to truth as we shall see.
The second thing is still more important. Faith is not something that acts automatically, faith is not something that acts magically. Many people, it seems to me, conceive of faith as if it were something similar to those thermostats which you have in connection with a heating apparatus. You set your thermostat at a given level, you want to maintain the temperature at a certain point, and it acts automatically. If the temperature is tending to rise above that, the thermostat comes into operation and brings it down. You do not have to do anything about it, the thermostat brings the temperature back to the desired level automatically. Now there are many people who seem to think that faith acts like that. They assume that it does not matter what happens to them, that faith will operate and all will be well. Faith, however, is not something that acts automatically or magically. If it did, these men would never have been in trouble, faith would have come into operation and they would have been calm and quiet and all would have been well. But faith is not like that and those are utter fallacies with respect to it.
Positively
What is faith? Let us look at it positively. The principle taught here is that faith is an activity, it is something that has to be exercised.
Now let me divide that up a little. Faith is something that you and I have to bring into operation. This is exactly what our Lord said to these men. He said: 'Where is your faith?' which means, 'Why are you not taking your faith and applying it to this position?' You see, it was because they did not do so, because they did not put their faith into operation, that the disciples were in this state of consternation. How then does one put one's faith into operation? What do I mean by saying that faith is something we have to apply? I can divide my answer in this way. The first thing I must do when I find myself in a difficult position is to refuse to allow myself to be controlled by the situation.
Faith is a refusal to panic. Does that seem too earthly and not sufficiently spiritual? It is of the very essence of faith. Faith is a refusal to panic, come what may. Browning, I think, had that idea when he defined faith like this: 'With me, faith means perpetual unbelief keep quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot'. Here is Michael and there is the snake beneath his foot, and he just keeps it quiet under the pressure of his foot. Faith is unbelief kept quiet, kept down. (That is what these men did not do. They allowed this situation to grip them, they became panicky.)
Remind yourself
Having taken that first step, having pulled yourself up, then remind yourself of what you believe and what you know. That again is something these foolish disciples did not do. If only they had stopped a moment and said: 'Now then, what about it? Is it possible that we are going to drown with him in the boat? Is there anything he cannot do? We have seen his miracles, he turned the water into wine, He can heal the blind and lame, he can even raise the dead, is it likely that he is going to allow us and himself to be drowned in this way? Impossible! In any case he loves us, he cares for us. He has told us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered!' That is the way in which faith reasons. It says: 'All right, I see the waves and the billows, but' - it always puts up this 'but'. That is faith, it holds on to truth, and reasons from what it knows to be fact. That is the way to apply faith. These men did not do that, and that is why they became agitated and panic-stricken. And you and I will become panic-stricken and agitated if we fail to do the same.
Applying faith
And then the next step is that faith applies all that to the particular situation. Again, that was something these men did not do, and that is why our Lord puts it to them in this way: 'Where is your faith?' - 'You have got it, why don't you apply it, why don't you bring all you know to bear on this situation, why don't you focus it on this particular problem?' That is the next step in the application of faith. Whatever your circumstances at this moment, bring all you know to be true of your relationship to God to bear upon it. Then you will know full well that he will never allow anything to happen to you that is harmful. 'All things work together for good to them that love God.' Not a hair of your head shall be harmed. He loves you with an everlasting love. I do not suggest that you will be able to understand everything that is happening. You may not have a full explanation of it; but you will know for certain that God is not unconcerned. That is impossible.
That is the way faith works. But you and I have to exercise it.
