Holy Cheese

1 Thessalonians 3:10

¹⁰ Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.

|

Holy Spirit! Have I ever mentioned that I love reading the Bible? It’s the best, most fun, and most rewarding thing I do every day. There’s always something new to learn and discover, and the messages never change. It’s the only book I’ve ever read where the messages it gives are completely consistent and simple to understand, and yet I’m always learning something new when I read it. That stands to reason of course, because the Word of God is alive and active. It is a deadly sentient weapon, and also the power of genesis. I can think of no other thing that has the power to both destroy and create life. That also makes sense, because the Word of our God is, miraculously, mysteriously, a form and representation of God’s only Son. I don’t really understand how Jesus can be captured in a book, but I have experienced His power there too many times to doubt it. Reading the Bible is like talking to Jesus, and how many times have Christians said to themselves, “if I could talk to Jesus, I’d…” Praise God! We can talk to Jesus. Crack the Bible and away we go.

So, look at this: “fill the gaps in your faith.” Ooof! Imagine it like this, a block of well aged swiss cheese. It’s a complete thing, a block of cheese, but it’s also riddled with holes. Faith gaps are not a new concept, but thinking of them in this way does provide a powerful new perspective for me. For example, hearing Jesus talk about great faith, I wonder now, if great faith isn’t a larger block of cheese, but instead, a block of cheese with fewer holes in it. Also, I praise the Holy Spirit for giving me the idea of faith like swiss cheese. Why? The holes in swiss cheese appear and get larger as the cheese ages. Which sounds an awful lot like what happens to people’s faith as a byproduct of living in this sin filled world. The more we are exposed to the darkness of this world, the more this world’s bitterness, jealousy, anger, and selfishness cut out holes in our faith. Also, cheese is made from milk. Eh?! Those are dots I never connected before, and never would have if it weren’t for God’s gift of His own wise Holy Spirit. Praise Jesus!

I imagine faith gaps as pockets of distrust, bubbles of anxiety, spheres of fear. We all have them. There has only ever been one Man Whose cheese brick of faith had zero holes in it. Here’s the thing about faith gaps though, it’s incredibly difficult to correctly and clearly see what they are for ourselves. That’s why this: “asking God to let us see you again” is so all-fired important. God gives us to each other so that we can help each other to see our own faith gaps. How do we do that though? How do we know how to recognize the gaps in other people’s faith? Only one way. Which is to say that God has created a fellowship network of people who are made capable of helping each other recognize the holes in their faith, and to DO SOMETHING about them. This verse makes it clear that we help each other in two distinct and powerful ways: earnest prayer (night and day we pray earnestly), and discussion. That’s a gift. A gift so beautiful and amazing, and yet, so often, taken for granted. I’m here to tell you it shouldn’t be, not ever. Here’s why.

The alternative to learning about and filling our faith gaps by prayers and by listening to other people encourage us with God’s Holy Word, is fire, plain and simple. Stick a brick of swiss in a pan and turn on the heat and all those holes will go away. They’ll go away because the cheese will melt and become a gooey mess. Plop that gooey mess into a bowl of water and it will become a solid mass again, devoid of holes. Praise God, He will put us through both fire and water to get rid of all the gaps in our faith. Yes, praise God, now and forever.

He has told us that one way we can praise Him is by helping each other to recognize, and therefore pray for God to rid us of, our faith gaps. That happens in exactly three ways, studying His Word for ourselves, praying, and then going to talk to others. Sounds kind of like this, doesn’t it? So, I pray.

|

Lord God, I pray that You would remove all the gaps in my faith, by Your strong Word, Your Holy Spirit, by the encouragement of my brothers and sisters in faith, and, when it is needed Father, by the fire of Your loving discipline. Let no gap in my faith remain on that day when Jesus my King comes again to claim all those who have, by Your loving gifts, believed in His Name. In His Most Holy Name I ask, and pray. Amen.