Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
One of my students recently gave his tribute speech honoring his aunt. He constructed a beautiful acronym to describe her virtues. When he got to the “O” in his speech, he said, “O stands for obstinate!” What? He explained how his aunt’s obstinate refusal to give up on him probably saved his life. I love it when God turns harsh words into beautiful ones.
Like “defiant faith.”
Defiance usually carries a negative connotation. Defiant children (or adults for that matter) are not pleasant to be around. They ooze with rebellion, insolence and disrespect. But when combined with faith, obstinance proclaims a force that refuses to conform to the status quo. A faith that doesn’t tolerate sinful compromise. A faith that isn’t intimidated for a minute by difficult circumstances. Defiant faith enables us to stand firm no matter what kind of storm surrounds us.
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews chronicles a whole slew of people who exhibited defiant faith. These folks didn’t give in to the call for conformity; they defied it. They took unthinkable risks because their hope wasn’t derived from what they could see or what they could understand. God’s promise gave them all the assurance they needed to beat the odds.
Undoubtedly, Satan will try to sabotage our faith every time we start moving in God’s direction, just as he did with the patriarchs. Recently I experienced one of those wave-crushing disappointments that tried to drown my faith. Before I knew it, I was pulled into a riptide of remembering past failures. Echoes of my inadequacies started to mask out the sweet song of redemption. So I did the only thing I knew. I cried out to God. As he reminded me of his promises, I eventually discovered a new strength.
The very circumstances Satan sends to weaken us can become, if entrusted to God, the elements we need to develop defiant faith. Because what Satan intends for evil, God turns into good (Genesis 50:20). So here’s my tribute to defiant faith. It’s…
Determined
Enemy consciousness
Faithful to God’s word
Insistent on God’s way
Abandoned to God’s will
Not intimidated by circumstances
Tenacious
Embrace defiant faith, friend. And watch God deliver a magnificent defeat to Satan’s schemes against you.