Yancey on Faith

"Doubt is the skeleton in the closet of faith, and I know no better way to treat a skeleton than to bring it into the open and expose it for what it is: not something to hide or fear, but a hard structure on which living tissue may grow..."I don't know how the kind of faith required of a Christian living in the 20th century can be at all if it is not grounded on the experience of unbelief," wrote novelist Flannery O'Connor to a friend."Peter said, 'Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.' It is the most natural and most human and most agonizing prayer in the gospels, and I think it is the foundation prayer of faith" (pg. 41).*


"Truth that does not set free is not truth" (pg 45).

"Churches that leave room for mystery, that do not pretend to spell out what God himself has not spelled out, create an environment most conducive to worship...we lean on God out of need, not out of surplus" (pg. 47).

"Faith means striking out, with no clear end in sight and perhaps even no clear view of the next step...faith is reason gone courageous" (pg. 47).

"In magic, people try to get the gods to perform their will, while in religion people try to conform to the will of the gods. Christian faith means conforming to the will of God whatever it may mean" (pg 52).

"Faith offers the option of continuing to trust God even while accepting the limits of our humanity, which means accepting that we cannot answer the "Why?" questions" (pg 56).

"A faithful person sees life from the perspective of trust, not fear" (pg 65).

"Jean-Pierre de Caussade..."A living faith is nothing else than a steadfast pursuit of God through all that disguises, disfigures, demolishes and seeks, so to speak, to abolish him." De Caussade sought to accept each moment as a revelation of God believing that regardless of how things appear at a given time, all of history will ultimately serve to accomplish God's purpose on earth. He advised, "Love and accept the present moment as the best, with perfect trust in God's universal goodness...Everything without exception is an instrument and means of sanctification...God's purpose for us is always what will contribute most to our good."...perhaps that's what faith is: trusting God's goodness despite any apparent evidence against it" (pg. 69).

"Faith, I have found, is not something I can settle into, a skill I learn to master. It comes as a gift from God, and I need to pray for it every day, as I pray for daily bread" (pg. 81).

"Living faith involves me pleasing God, far more than God pleasing me" (pg 82).

...and there's more. For that, you'll have to read it!


*Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey