FAKE FAITH

By: Rev. Arnel C. Tan

“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.”
Luke 5:5

Can you detect fake faith? I’m sure God can, but, can we? We have been so deceived that we cannot detect which is true and phony. It is here that the Lord intervenes and exposes to us how fake we are. Politeness and diplomacy is not faith, they are cultural influences that allow us not to believe and still look good. Being polite is not bad, just don’t call it faith. This is exactly what Simon is showing Christ – the jewish polite way of saying “no fish Rabbi, you’re wrong”.

God knows what’s fake and authentic but we don’t. In other words, the test that God allows in our journey is not for God to know but for us to discover who we are, and be led by the Spirit of God to repentance. Let us not settle for fake faith… it looks good and harmless but it has never impressed God at all. Can we produce or possess the genuine one? The answer is yes and no… ‘yes’ because God is the giver of faith; ‘no’ because we can never produce it on our own.

As Simon treads the journey, the Lord gradually awakens faith in his heart! While God is not hostage to any circumstance, He refuses to hostage anyone to bring them to faith. The Lord’s patience is amazing! Dealing with us in our individual faith-awakening journey, and dealing with us in our congregational faith-awakening journey, we slowly see that what we have cherished is fake! Fake faith, like many cheap products, is affordable… no sacrifices required, no need for surrender too, but when the storm comes, it can’t stand. Fake faith has no durability in it.

In this faith-awakening journey, may we become sensitive to God’s leading that we may recognize the difference between just being polite and diplomatic versus an authentic walk of faith. Remember, faith is planted inside our hearts; it is nourished inside too; it’s roots grow deep so silently that sometimes it looks like nothing is happening. In prayer, wait on the Lord and He will unfold to us the next step. Fake faith is a comfort. True faith is a tested vessel, under a storm-scarred Captain.