One of the most memorable days of my life is February 8, 1973, when I became a mother for the first time. There was much joy and a little bit of “I hope I know what to do with this child.”

Our first son was bottle fed, and it was a lot of work – washing bottles, sterilizing bottles, mixing the formula just right, warming the bottles to the perfect temp, feeding the baby, burping the baby.  It was almost a full-time job to keep our son fed. We followed all the books and gathered all the information, so we would know exactly how to feed him.

Within just a few days, I realized something was off. The formula that Michael was drinking seemed to pass right through him. There was a lot of mucus in his diaper, and things did not look right. (Just telling it how it was.) This problem happened right after every feeding. Maybe I didn’t know what I was doing after all.

At his one-week-old checkup, Michael really had not gained any weight. I explained to the doctor what was happening. The doctor explained to me that the problem was the formula we were using. It did not work for Michael, and he needed to try soy milk. We adjusted, and in no time at all, things changed for Michael, and he began to thrive.

I had been relying on a formula that I thought would surely bring about the desired results.

Sometimes, I think we have our Christian walk down to a perfect formula. Don’t tune me out as I attempt to paint a picture. We often try to boil it down to simple formulas.

1. Marry another Christian + Pray together = A happy marriage.
2. Pray every day + Read the Bible = A good Christian.
3. Pray for the sick + Anoint with oil = All will be healed.
4. Give money to God’s work = No financial issues.
5. Worship music + Lifted Hands = Always being cheerful and joyful.

Our faith walk is more than formulas. It is a FAITH walk. I believe that faith sometimes involves wrestling with God. Faith, at times, is a struggle when life does not quite work out like I thought it would. Faith is clinging to a God I cannot see and a God that I sometimes do not feel. Faith is overcoming my thoughts when those thoughts want to contradict that God is a God of love, as I see so much pain in the lives of my friends and family. Faith is continuing to pray day after day and month after month and seeing no change in situations.

Let’s not confuse knowing formulas with knowing Jesus. Let’s not confuse following the rules with having a deep, intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. God and the Christian faith cannot be contained by human formulas. Though some of the things in the formulas above are good spiritual disciplines, they should go hand-in-hand with the understanding that faith is a daily walk with a God who can be trusted even when the formulas do not seem to be working. 

I want to move beyond a vending machine prayer life. If I can just put the right spiritual coins in, I will get what I ordered. If I have the perfect words, or the correct posture, or spend enough time in prayer, then things will happen. God has reminded me recently that prayer is much deeper than a formula. Prayer is an intimate talk with the One Who loves me deeply.

Habakkuk 3:17-19 states it so well:

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
    and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
    and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
    and the cattle barns are empty,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
    I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
    He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
    able to tread upon the heights.”

The prophet’s words describe complete economic devastation. Absolute loss. There were no grocery stores. If you could not grow your food or raise your flocks, then you starved. I asked myself after reading this, “What if God never turned around some of the things for which I am praying?” Some of them concern people I love who are facing situations that only God can change.

I think that is how Habakkuk must have felt. Yet, he said, “When all the formulas do not seem to be working, I will look to my Sovereign Lord to be my strength.  He will not let me stumble! He will make me surefooted. I will be a person with a “yet” praise.”

I might not understand all things, but that will never interfere with the love relationship between my God and me. Sometimes my formulas, while they are good, might not bring the change I desire. “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:10)