“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord (Rev. 1:8a).
The kind of faith exhibited by Paul is admittedly rare among believers. To be able to say with the apostle, “I will rejoice in my weakness,” or to declare with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” takes the highest form of faith. While we recognize the rarity of such faith, we do not mean to imply that this kind of faith is simply an ideal to admire from afar while having no intention of attaining it. God’s grace is sufficient not only to uphold us during trials but to strengthen our faith.
One practical way that God increases and develops our faith is by increasing our knowledge and understanding of Him. Even though God is incomprehensible to our limited minds, He is still knowable. Through the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit, we grow in our knowledge of God, and as that knowledge grows, our faith increases. In light of this truth, we will spend the rest of this month studying God’s character and attributes. With each study, we hope to gain at least one insight into God that will draw us closer to Him and cause us to trust Him more fully.
We begin by considering the eternality of God. Eternity is a difficult concept to grasp because all we know in this world is temporary. That God has always existed, and that He is the very essence of existence, perplexes even the most sensitive imagination. Nevertheless, God is eternal, He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Psalm 90:2 tells us, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” In Isaiah 44:6, God says, “I am the First and I am the Last, besides Me there is no God.”
How should the knowledge of God’s eternal existence increase our faith? First of all, it secures our trust in Him because we know that He will never leave us. People come and go, but God remains with us. We do not have to fear that He will leave us to face our suffering alone. He has always been and He will always be. Second, He is greater than our suffering. He existed before we even came to be, and He will exist after this season in our lives has past. We can, therefore, trust in His eternal presence.
Consider some of the fears you have. Be honest with yourself. How does, or should, God’s eternality, the certainty of His existence, alleviate these fears. Commit at least one verse concerning God’s eternality to memory. Meditate on the security that God’s eternal presence gives His people.
