"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time"
About this Quote
Chambers aims to rescue "faith" from the sentimental haze of mood, optimism, or religious brand loyalty. He defines it as an act of will: deliberate confidence. That adjective is doing heavy lifting. Faith, for him, is not what happens when life makes sense; it's what you choose when it doesn't. The line is built like a moral dare: if you think faith is mainly about getting clarity, you're still trying to stay in control.
The subtext is pastoral but uncompromising. Chambers concedes the felt problem - "whose ways you may not understand" - and then refuses to let that uncertainty renegotiate the relationship. Notice where he locates the anchor: not in outcomes, not in explanations, not even in specific doctrines about how God operates, but in "character". That word shifts the debate from "Can I solve this?" to "Can I trust who You are?" It frames doubt as a crisis of trust more than a crisis of evidence, which can be bracing or infuriating depending on your experience.
Context matters: Chambers wrote in the early 20th century, with his most influential work, My Utmost for His Highest, emerging posthumously as a devotional for disciplined, daily Christianity. In a world marked by war, loss, and modern disillusionment, this definition reads like spiritual triage. It offers a way to live with unanswered questions without pretending they aren't there, while still insisting that faith remains a choice with teeth, not a consolation prize for the naive.
The subtext is pastoral but uncompromising. Chambers concedes the felt problem - "whose ways you may not understand" - and then refuses to let that uncertainty renegotiate the relationship. Notice where he locates the anchor: not in outcomes, not in explanations, not even in specific doctrines about how God operates, but in "character". That word shifts the debate from "Can I solve this?" to "Can I trust who You are?" It frames doubt as a crisis of trust more than a crisis of evidence, which can be bracing or infuriating depending on your experience.
Context matters: Chambers wrote in the early 20th century, with his most influential work, My Utmost for His Highest, emerging posthumously as a devotional for disciplined, daily Christianity. In a world marked by war, loss, and modern disillusionment, this definition reads like spiritual triage. It offers a way to live with unanswered questions without pretending they aren't there, while still insisting that faith remains a choice with teeth, not a consolation prize for the naive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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