This year is already speeding by at a rapid pace. The Lord is truly a gracious provider, filling our lives with all that he has in store for us.
A question that has been building in mind is whether Christians ever go around a corner in their sanctification? Are their spiritual spikes as we grow in the image of Christ? I believe the answer is yes. These spikes are exceptions to the rule. Most of the Christian walk is a gradual progression, but God in his providence sometimes makes a dramatic shift.
Abraham had a spotty record when it came to trusting God. After God promised that all the earth would be blessed by his descendants (though he had none), he lied about his wife Sarai and gave her to Pharoah. The women by which God’s promise would have come, Abraham willingly allowed to enter a kings harem? Hardly a display of faith. Later, after God safely brought Sarai out of that situation, when Abraham was 86, he took Hager as a concubine and she bore Ishmael. Abraham was not trusting God, but making plans of his own.
When Ishmael turned 13, God returned to Abraham and repeated his promise to multiply his descendants. He was 99 years old and now Sarah was 90. Even after God renewed his promise to Abraham, he lied about his wife again, this time to Abimelech, allowing her to go into his harem. Despite this lack of faith, God safely brought Sarah back to Abraham. It had been 25 years since Abram first acted in faith and left Ur of the Chaldeans at age 75 (Gen. 12:4, Heb. 11:9). An now at age 100, his faith took a turn. Paul speaks of Abraham’s faith in Romans 4:18-21
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.
God is the hero of this story. Abraham for 25 years had faith mixed with failure, but God was gracious to fulfill his promises. God was not done testing Abraham. Though he had this one spike of faith, about 13 years later when Isaac was a young man, God tested Abraham again. Unlike his previous failure mixed with obedience, Abraham obeyed straight away. God told him to sacrifice Isaac, so first thing in the morning he left to a mountain and just a couple days later was at the point ready to slay his son. He passed the test and God provided a ram in his place.
This is a beautiful picture of God’s abundant grace. Decades of failure can leave a person thinking that change is impossible. Abraham had great intentions to obey God when he first left Ur of the Chaldeans. It took years of trials and testing to forge the faith Abraham showed when he was ready to sacrifice Isaac. The author of Hebrews commends this faith and adds that he had faith that God would bring Isaac back from the dead (Heb. 11:19). In his obedience, it also pointed forward to Christ. Like Abraham with Isaac, God willingly offered his Son as the complete atonement for sin (John 3:16). This complete atonement covers over all our long lack of faith.
There are many more examples of God moving people in spikes of faith. Judah when he was finally willing to give his life as a pledge to Jacob in Genesis 43:9. Moses, after running from God for 80 years, took a turn to trust God and ended up leading the people of God in the wilderness for 40 years. Saul, who later became the apostle Paul was first converted and preached Christ in that first year (Acts 9) and three years later he took a trip to minister in Jerusalem. But it wasn’t until about 13 years later that his ministry took a turn and he began his apostolic ministry (Gal. 2:1).
Simon Peter had faith in Jesus when he first called him (Luke 5:8-11), but went through three years of wavering faith during Jesus public ministry. Including sinking in the sea and denying that he knew Jesus three times. Peter was faithless in many ways, but Jesus gently restored him (John 21:15-19). This spike of faith for Peter led him to preach a powerful sermon, leading three thousand people being saved (Acts 2:41). Peter was on fire in his faith, until wasn’t. Around A.D. 49, about 15-16 years after Peter preached that powerful sermon, Paul had to confront him face for refusing to eat with gentiles (Gal. 2:11-14). Peter was acting with hypocrisy trying to force the Jewish laws on the Galatians, as part of the gospel (Gal. 2:14-16). Peter presumably received Paul’s admonishment and it was another 15 years later (around A.D. 64) Peter wrote 1 Peter 1:3-9.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter’s faith had been tested and God’s power had guarded him through it all. The trials he went through showed his lack of faith, but after he was through the trial, the tested genuineness of his faith resulted in being more precious then gold. It resulted in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
There are many more accounts of people in Scripture who took dramatic turns in their faith, years and decades after they first believed. This does not take into account countless biographies that bare testimony to the same pattern through history. God is in the business of building his church and changing his people into the image of his Son. For the most part, this is a gradual business and usually involves small changes in our lives. By the grace of God, there are times God pushes us to new limits. Often this is not to the luxury of that person, generally there is much more work and pain involved. Despite this, we can confidently say,
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Rom. 4:18-21.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), 1 Pe 1:3–9.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), 2 Co 4:17.
