Do you have faith in God? Before you answer, consider another question. Is it possible to have faith in God and not know it? 

There is an old axiom that states: “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Whether it is completely true or not, I don’t know. I’ve have never been in a foxhole – let alone in a foxhole with an atheist. The point this axiom makes, however, is worth considering. Sometimes we don’t know what we really have inside us until we are confronted with a challenge to our survival. 

We have all heard accounts where people claim they were saved from a disaster by obeying a voice that spoke from inside them. Did they really hear a voice? If so, whose voice was it? And what about those who may not have been so lucky as to survive? Was it because the voice didn’t speak to them? If didn’t, why not? 

I don’t claim to have the answer to these questions. I have, however, had a similar experience. There was a terrifying moment in my life when I realized that I was in mortal danger, but unable to act. Suddenly I heard a loud voice cry out inside me, “God help me!” In an instant the danger was gone. What most interested me about this experience, although I was unable to speak, it was my own voice that I heard. 

I have thought long and hard about my experience and have since come to this conclusion. Although at the time I wasn’t living a life that would be pleasing to God, and had even deigned believing in Him, inside of me there was a faith I didn’t know I had. 

Apostle Paul once pointed out that God has given everyone a measure of faith, whether they know it or not. Paul wrote, “For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not the think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3 New American Standard Bible). 

You see, I became a Christian as a small child. One night I was afraid of the dark and I began to cry. My mother sat beside me. She told me about Jesus and what He did for me on the cross. She told me if I would asked Him, Jesus would come into my heart and be my friend. He would protect me from all evil. After I prayed for Jesus to come into my heart I was no longer afraid. I went right to sleep. 

This brings up another question. What would have happened to me if my mother had never told me about Jesus? Would that voice still have been there for me when I needed it? I don’t know for sure. The fact is, there are those who say they have been saved by listening to that inner voice, and yet they don’t believe in Jesus or the Bible. 

Both experience and the Bible suggest that God sometimes will help those outside the Christian faith. Once when discussing the importance of godliness Paul stated, “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (1 Timothy 4:10). Paul is not suggesting that those who have heard the message of Christ, and have rejected it, can be saved. In another place he warned, “And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12) 

By saying that God is the “Savior of all men, especially of believers”, Paul is simply revealing to us how God is active in this world attempting to bring people to a place of faith in Himself, and especially in the work of His Son Jesus. 

So, do you have faith in God? Perhaps you do. 

You just don’t know it yet.