In today's My Utmost For His Highest devotion, Chambers comments on the passage above, saying, "God sometimes allows you to go into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the right and proper thing to consider if you were not living a life of faith; but if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and leave God to choose for you. This is the discipline by means of which the natural is transformed into the spiritual by obedience to the voice of God."
Try an excercise: insert "trust" where Chambers has written "faith."
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Did you know that, biblically speaking, the word used for faith is the same as the word for trust? I just heard someone speak on this topic. He was reminding us how a lot of the original meaning of the word faith has been lost (in the whole, fruitless "faith v. reason" Enlightenment thinking). And so the word faith has been corrupted. But trust has not. So this means that you can also substitute "trust" where Jesus talks about "faith" and anywhere Paul talks about faith and, that passage in Hebrews 11? Yeah, it works there too (That's one of the major examples our speaker used. His name was Andrew Olsen from New Missions Systems International).
What happens when you make this change in thinking? You begin to notice that faith is not just an indefinable quality. For example (and this example is again, thanks to Mr. Olsen), if I told you that you don't have enough faith, it would be a lot like telling you that you're too short. You can't do anything about it other than feel guilty.
But if I told you that you don't trust God enough. Ah! Trusting is something I can do. It might not be easy, but I can let go, I can put my hands up in surrender, I can let someone else take control. Not saying this is going to be easy, but when you think about it, it's not impossible like willing myself to grow taller.
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