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Though He Slay Me, Yet Will I Trust Him

As the final blog in my faith series, I'd like to take a look at what it means to remain faithful to God despite what we're going through in life. And I'd like to do so by touching upon the life of Hannah Whittal Smith, a woman whose lifelong fidelity to Christ was the very definition of true faith.

Hannah Whitall Smith was a famous Christian author and evangelist at the turn of the century (author of "A Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life"). She lived a life of terrible suffering like Job’s (Old Testament), but unlike Job, she went to the grave without renewed health and blessings, and without seeing any her prayers answered the way she wanted them to be. Despite all her suffering, Hannah loved God unwaveringly, trusted Him inexplicably and remained faithful to Him to the very end. ...

Hannah’s first daughter died of an incurable disease at the age of four; her first son died of another disease at the age of seventeen; two more of her daughters became atheists (one of whom abandoned her children to an ex-husband who went to great lengths to keep Hannah out of her granddaughters' lives); her second son followed in his father’s (later) agnostic footsteps; her third daughter died at age nine of yet another illness, and Hannah’s final, seventh child, was stillborn.

On top of all this, Hannah’s famous evangelist husband began to have mental and nervous breakdowns, he eventually abandoned his faith in Christ (successfully swaying his living children away from Christ as well) and spent the second half of his marriage engaging in multiple affairs. Hannah prayed for God to heal each of her sick children but He let them die. She prayed that God would bring her atheist children back to a saving faith in God. He did not. She prayed that her husband would be healed of his mental illness, return to Christ and be a faithful husband once again, but he went to the grave without repentance in any shape or form.

Despite all her suffering, Hannah wrote the following in the last chapter of her book, The God of All Comforts:

No soul can truly be at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Feelings may change, and will change with our changing circumstances; doctrines and dogmas may be upset; Christian work may come to nought; prayers may seem to lose their fervency; promises may seem to fail; everything that we have believed in or have depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left, just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression; simply and only God . . . This, then, is what I mean by God being enough. It is that we find in him, the fact of his existence, and of his character, all that we can possibly want for everything. God is, must be, our answer to every question and every cry of need. If there is any lack in the one who has undertaken to save us, nothing supplementary we can do will avail to make it up; and if there is no lack in him, then he of himself and in himself, is enough.

The all-sufficiency of God ought to be as complete to the child of God as the all-sufficiency of a good mother is to the child of that mother. We all know the utter rest of the little child in the mother’s presence and in the mother’s love. That its mother is there is enough to make all fears and all troubles disappear. The child does not need the mother to make any promises; she herself, just as she is, without promises and without explanations, is all that the child needs . . . God’s saints in all ages have known this, and have realized that God was enough for them. Job said out of the depths of sorrows and trails, which few can equal, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.’ Therefore, O doubting and sorrowful heart, cannot thee realize with Job and the saints of all ages that nothing else is needed to quiet all thy fears, but just this–that God is. God is enough, God is enough for time; God is enough for eternity. God is enough!

True faith is remaining faithful to God no matter what happens in your life.

We should not cease to pray for our heart’s desires - but we must be willing to let go when God says no. And in times when He does say no, we shouldn’t then berate ourselves for not having enough “faith” to get a yes-answer. God has not ignored our prayers - on the contrary, He has listened to them, considered them and said no.

True faith is saying, like Job and Hannah, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” (Job 13:15)

Dear friend, if you have begged God for healing and He has said no, it is not because He doesn’t love you as much as the person He did heal. If you have begged God to free you from a certain hardship and He has said no, it is not because you didn’t have as much faith as the person He did free. If you have begged God to make your dream come true and He has said no, it is not because someone else was more deserving of the same dream. God does not show favortism (Ephesians 6:9, Acts 10:34, et al.) He has a unique plan for each of our lives. As Jesus told the disciples many times, being a Christian does not exempt us from the common sufferings of mankind (the result of living in a cursed world).

Tragedies happen every day to Christians and non-Christians alike, yet Christians have a tendency to blame themselves for hardship and tragedy. i.e. “God is punishing me for sin in my life” or “If I’d only had more faith, God would’ve answered my prayer for healing.”

Some Christians are rich, some are poor, some are healthy, some are sick, some are happy, some are sad. Are the latter somehow weaker Christians, lacking in faith? Is God punishing them by withholding rewards and blessings? Consider this: The Apostle Paul said, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (Philippians 4:12). And Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (John 9:58). Both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul endured poverty and hunger, but it certainly wasn't for a lack of righteousness or faith.

Now it is true that unrepentant sin in our lives will cause us pain (as well as others), and even when we do repent, we'll still likely suffer the natural consequences. But if you've honestly examined your heart and can find no unrepentant sin there, then there's no reason for you to assume that God is punishing you. Remember, Paul "pleaded" with God to remove the "thorn" from his flesh and God said, No, "my grace is sufficient for you". And Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethesamene that "this cup might pass" from him (the crucifixion), and God the Father said no. It had nothing to do with unrepentant sin or a lack of faith! Can we not accept that God is just as sovereign when He says no as when He says yes? In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked him: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" and Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (John 9:2-3).

In general, poverty vs. wealth, illness vs. health, etc., are random and circumstantial. Cancer might be genetic, wealth might be inherited. Again, this is not a study on why God allows suffering, but suffice it to say that more than likely, your suffering is a direct result of living in this cursed world.

Consider this: A drunk driver does not select which car he will smash into on the highway. He did however choose to become intoxicated, and he chose to drive his car. When he crashes into someone, a tragedy is likely to result. It is the consequence of his sin. C.S. Lewis said, "it is better for you and for everyone else in the long run that other people, including wicked ones, should exercise free will than that you should be protected from cruelty or treachery by turning the human race into automata." That being said, God does intervene miraculously at times. But by the very definition of a miracle, if God were to intervene in every single circumstance, the miraculous would cease to be miraculous - it would become the norm. The Bible tells us that angels keep watch over us; there is no telling how many times we've been miraculously spared from tragedy. Nevertheless, the truth remains that we have free will and God allows us to suffer the natural consequences of wrong choices. Otherwise, if evil was never punished, it would cease to be evil in our eyes.

And what about nature? A tsunami wave does not pause to make sure it is only wiping out bad people; it will devastate anyone who happens to be living or visiting within its destructive path. And so it is with most hardships and tragedies; they are random and circumstantial, or the consequence of free will choices. If you're born in Africa, chances are you'll grow up in poverty; whereas in America, you're more likely to grow up in wealth. It's because of location only; not some skewed favoritism of God. Ecclesiastes 9:11 says, "I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

In conclusion, true faith is:

    * Believing that God is our Creator and that Jesus is our Savior (Hebrews 11, Romans 10)
    * Being anxious for nothing and praying about everything; trusting God (Philippians 4:6-7)
    * Acknowledging that a no-answer is just as real as a yes-answer (Ephesians 1:11)
    * Using our gifts for the glory of God; relying on the Holy Spirit and not ourselves (Galatians 3:3)
    * Keeping our eyes steadfast on Christ despite fear and turmoil (Matthew 14)
    * Believing we can move any mountain God commissions us to move (Matthew 17)
    * Fidelity through suffering (Hebrews 11, book of Job)

Hebrews 12:2-3 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scourning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES:

Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed

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