Learning to Live by Faith

In Chapter 1 of God of All Comfort, Hannah Whitall Smith explains why she wrote the book. She says that she believes that the Christian life is supposed to be full of comfort, but that many Christians do not experience that comfort, but instead are plagued by doubts and fears – which can leave them in a miserable condition rather than being filled with joy and peace. An agnostic she was having a conversation with once said to her, “The Christians I meet seem to me to be the very most uncomfortable people anywhere around. They seem to carry their religion as a man carries a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but at the same time it is very uncomfortable to have it. And I for one do not care to have that sort of religion.” Smith was in the beginning of her walk with God at that point in time and was still experiencing joy. But as time went on, she found herself experiencing the same kind of discomfort and unrest the agnostic man had described.

Smith writes, “Does the fault of this state of things lie with the Lord? Has He promised more than He is able to supply?” She quotes a writer who said, “There is a feeling abroad that Christ has offered in His Gospel more than He has to give. People think that they have not exactly realized what was predicted as the portion of the children of God. But why is this so? Has the kingdom of God been overadvertised, or is it only that it has been underbelieved; has the Lord Jesus Christ been overestimated, or has He only been undertrusted?”

Smith explains that she wrote this book to answer that question. She believes that the Lord Jesus Christ could never be overestimated. The problem is that he has been undertrusted. She says that people do not know enough about God to know that they can trust in Him. So throughout this book she is going to explain “the grounds there are in the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ for that deep and lasting peace and comfort of soul, which nothing earthly can disturb, and which is declared to be the portion of those who embrace it.”

Remember, faith is made up of 3 things: knowledge, belief, and trust. You gain knowledge about something, then you believe it to be true, and then because you believe it to be true, you place your trust in it. So Smith is saying that the problem preventing Christians from experiencing comfort from God has to do with a lack of faith. We are under-trusting God because we do not have enough knowledge of who He is, and, therefore, we do not receive all the blessings that are available to us through Christ and our union with Him.

Smith says that in order to increase our faith in God, we must start by increasing our knowledge of Him. The kind of knowing that she is saying to start with is “just the plain matter-of-fact knowledge of God’s nature and character that comes to us by believing what is revealed to us in the Bible concerning Him.” Start by studying God’s written word and putting your trust in the truths of Scripture. Inward revelations will happen later. Focus first on reading through the Bible and believing what is written. Smith says that “although this may seem very dry and bare to start with, it will, if steadfastly persevered in, result in very blessed inward revelations, and will sooner or later lead us out into such a knowledge of God as will transform our lives.”

Smith says, “It is of vital importance for us to understand that the Bible is a statement, not of theories, but of actual facts; and that things are not true because they are in the Bible, but they are only in the Bible because they are true.” She uses the imagery of a map to help make this point.

A map is made up of places that already exist. So a place has to already be known to exist in order to be put on a map. In the same way, the Bible is made up of facts that are already known to be true. The facts must already be known to be true in order to be written in the Bible. Thinking of it this way can “take all uncertainty and all speculation out of the revelation given us in the Bible of the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to make all that is written concerning Him to be simply a statement of incontrovertible facts.” And as we are learning to increase our trust in God, we can start by believing His written word and placing our trust in the truths revealed to us there.

Smith emphasizes that the only thing that can set our heart at rest is a real acquaintance with God:

“Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace” (Job 22:21 KJV)

“This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” (John 17:3 KJV)

Smith says that “everything in our salvation must depend upon Him in the last instance; and, according as He is worthy or not of our confidence, so must necessarily be our comfort.” If we were going out on a dangerous voyage, the first thing we would want to know is who our captain was going to be and if he was trustworthy. And then based on how trustworthy we believed him to be, we would either find comfort about going on the journey or we would be distressed. Jesus is our captain on the journey to heaven. So she is going to be writing about who He is and why we can trust in Him throughout the book so that we will be able to feel joy, comfort, and peace.

I thought the imagery she used was interesting when she compared the Bible to a map and Jesus to our captain. We must remember that God is always with us and that He provides for all of our needs. He does not send us out alone on this treacherous journey and does not expect us to find the way ourselves. Instead, He provides us with the map of how to get to heaven – in His word He teaches us that the way to heaven is by believing in Jesus, His Son. And then Jesus Himself is the captain of our ship on our journey home to guide us over the stormy seas, staying with us all the way until we reach the golden shore of heaven. We are never alone. And the more we know we can trust Him, the more at peace we can be throughout our life here on earth.

In your meditation time, envision yourself in that boat with Jesus. You look out and see stormy waters. Practice learning to feel confidence in Jesus’ ability to guide you safely through. You can rest in His care.

Here is a link to Chapter 1 of God of All Comfort: Hannah Whitall Smith: God of All Comfort – Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It’s very interesting if you have a chance to read it. I hope this summary of it was helpful.