Apostle Emmanuel Iren said, “The measure of faith is not only in what you can gain from it, but also in what you are willing to lose for it”. Oftentimes, faith is described only as a gain or something that sets you on a path to acquire, but this description is flawed. And the propagation of this flawed concept of faith is powered by the selective reading of Scripture. Faith is not always to gain; there are times when your faith requires you to lose something.
A common expression of this misplaced faith is in our pursuit of favour. Now, don’t get me wrong, favour is good, and we should pray for it. But when our prayers for favour become selfish, they lose their essence. Many believers today don’t care if someone is suffering beside them, as long as they themselves are well, “applying their faith” for personal gain.
But what if I told you that faith is sacrifice?
Moses’ story gives us a striking example. “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”
Hebrews 11:24-25 NIV
Moses could have prayed for favour throughout his lifetime in Egypt. After all, he was already regarded as royalty and could have climbed higher in the kingdom. Yet, he took the less-traveled path. By faith, he refused the comfort of Pharaoh’s palace and chose instead to suffer with God’s people. By faith, he sacrificed a life of ease and trusted in the delivering power of God.
Last week, I mentioned Abraham as a patriarch of faith. His greatest display of faith was in his willingness to offer up Isaac (Heb. 11:17). He had so much faith that he was willing to lose something for it. Take Daniel and the three Hebrew boys as another example. They looked death right in the face, yet still clung to faith (Dan. 3:16-18). We often talk about how strong their faith was to say that God, whom they serve, is able to deliver them. But look, they go on to say, even if He doesn’t, they still won’t oblige. For the faith they had in God—in His existence and truth—they were willing to let go of their lives.
If this happened today, some believers would say they lacked faith. That they didn’t pray hard enough. That’s why, they’d insist, they were thrown into the fire.
The selective study in this context usually skips or skims over verses 35- 38 of Hebrews 11. Look at what it says:
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
Hebrews 11:35-38 NIV
In verse 39 of Hebrews 11, the scripture tells us that this was also faith. The same faith that helped some people receive their dead back to life, subdue mountains, quench fires, and shut the mouth of lions, was the same faith that empowered some others to be persecuted, mistreated, imprisoned, and even killed.
While your own sacrifice may not be imprisonment or torture, it could be losing that job you thought was the best or taking a more rigorous path than the perfect one you had in mind.
I believe it is important that believers understand this other side of faith to prevent us from thinking God doesn’t answer prayers or, in general, losing faith. An understanding that faith is not only about gaining, but also about giving something up, will save you from frustration.
Faith+blog 