A.W. Tozer stated that faith “is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God.” He also did a comparison of ‘looking’ in the Old Testament and ‘believing’ in the New Testament. In this comparison he stated that eventually a plain man would come to understand that “‘looking’ on the Old Testament serpent [on the staff of Moses to get healing from snake bites] is identical with ‘believing’ on the New Testament Christ. That is, the looking and believing are the same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with their external eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would conclude that faith is the gaze of the soul upon a saving God” (The Pursuit of God, pp. 89-90).
Tozer’s insight is tremendously helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of what faith really is. For so many years I’ve heard people state that things didn’t work out the way I had hoped or prayed because I didn’t have enough faith. But just what is enough faith? Even Jesus blessed a man who admitted that he had both faith and unbelief (see Luke 9:24-25). Jesus definitely encouraged the man and many others to grow in faith, but He never said that He would only work in the heart with zero doubt and 100% faith.
Returning to Tozer’s work puts faith in an entirely different light. Faith is not a commodity to gain more quantities of like the accumulation of useless stuff in our garage. Faith is instead a state of continual affection; because that which we are most in love with is what we will think the most about and look to the most often. We also need to remember another truism of the human soul in that we will turn to what we are most attracted to when times get rough. Some turn to booze or drugs, some turn to their spouse, but others will turn in genuine faith and prayer to the Lord. Of all these options, only the Lord will truly satisfy.
Now I’m finally coming to realize, especially as I get older, that I’ve made faith entirely too complicated; an inner gaze upon the heart of Jesus is much simpler than all that striving and teeth-gritting. It is amazing to think that an act of faith is as simple as pondering Jesus in silent contemplation. I don’t always have to be doing something to “have faith,” I can just simply direct my thoughts up to the throne of God. Taking each thought captive to Christ is an act of faith. Praying about my concerns is also an act of faith. From the Book of Psalms we find that crying out to God, whether in fear or anger, is also an act of faith.
Having a simpler understanding of faith makes my heart even more grateful to our loving Heavenly Father. Man has made faith a complex morass of works and proving grounds, while our Lord simply says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
