And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him’ (Mark 11:22-23)
Unfortunately, we often reverse the biblical pattern and, instead of seeing ourselves as created in God’s image, we try to make God in our image. In other words, we form a comfortable image of God in our minds and then let that image determine our attitude.
For some people, God is just an effeminate old man in the sky.
For others, he is a cruel, vindictive tyrant or a kill-joy or a benevolent spirit who loves everyone regardless and wouldn’t hurt a fly or a God who was once powerful, but today is powerless.
It is clear that our image of God determines the quality of our faith. Unless we believe in the God of the Bible, our faith will not work.
And the God of the Bible is a miracle-working God. An all-powerful, righteous God who is true to his Word in every respect.
When Jesus said, ‘Have faith in God’, this is the kind of God he was talking about.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.