Faith. We hear a lot about “keeping the faith” as well as
people talking about having ‘faith in so and so, or yourself.’ but what is the
beginning of faith? What is its substance all about? How can I have faith in
God if I don’t know what it really means to have faith in God?
Lets look- In His Word!
And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what
their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no
faith. They have provoked Me to jealousy
by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols.
Psalm 6:1
In the LORD I put my trust; Ps 11:1
Then the LORD
answered me and said:
…" For the
vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will
not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will
not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall
live by his faith.” Habbakuk 2:2-4
But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of
little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there
was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even
the winds and the sea obey Him?" Matt
8:26-27
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Rom 1:16-17
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by
faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God. And not only that, … Rom
5:1-3
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. Eph 3:17-18
Through these scriptures alone we can see that God has
placed great importance in the word faith.
Faith is…
F- First, last and always we must have
faith in order to believe, faith is believing in and for what we do not have in
front of us. It is tangible in the Holy Spirit’s presence alone until the day
that He brings it to pass. We know that faith will bring it to us, but we have
to rely on God to bring us through whatever it is by trusting Him. In Hebrews
11:1-2, we are told that Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
with out proof ahead of time just trusting that it will happen. We have to
begin with faith in Christ, believing that He is real, knowing in our hearts
and minds that He died for us on the cross and that He loves us! That takes
faith of the most difficult kind for some. This faith is only the beginning.
Faith brings us to God, and by faith we grow to know Him more
For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Eph 2:8-9
Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the
elders obtained a good testimony. Hebrews
11:1
A- Allow God to work in His timing. “For the vision is yet for an appointed
time; but at the end it will speak…” We are told of waiting on the Lord
both in this scripture from Habakkuk and in many other scriptures. We can’t just expect what we want to happen over
night, though at times our faith may be strong enough to believe for that often
times we have to allow the Lord to work a few things out on our behalf that
take a bit longer than we expected. In these times we must not give up hope,
for it has an appointed time to come to pass. Each of us was given a measure of
faith God knows how much faith you need. Trust God to do what He says He will
do! Allow Him to work it out, in His time.
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3
I- Innocence in our faith is very
important, we cannot let the world taint our faith. It will try, with false
hopes of winning a lottery, or buy one get one at this wonderful price… these
produce false hopes that your money will last longer or you will get something
if you buy a ticket! God wants our faith to be in Him alone. He wants to know
that we are obediently trusting in Him alone, as a child trusts in his parents
to feed, cloth and comfort him, so our God will do for us. We know He will do
it, but we lack the innocence in our hearts to block out what the world says
about it. Faith, in our countries, is tried and trashed daily as people use the
word selfishly. “You just have to trust your judgement...” and similar sayings
bother me. I don’t trust myself, I trust my God to do the work in me! That is
why I prayed for a godly husband that is why I pray for my children to be wise
men and woman of God, someday, because I know we are fallible but He is infallible!
I need to trust Him with the innocent thought that He will do it and that’s
final. Doubt has no place in faith.
T- Trust Him, I have said that in all
three of the above sections I believe. That is because faith is trusting in a
great big God! If we do not trust God, we do not have faith in Him. Trusting
Him to be honest with you, just because He loves you. You can know that He is
faithful and just as you look back to the times when He has been there for you
before, know that He will do it again!
H- Hope for the lost, the dying, the sick,
and the burdened. Our faith is in the One that is the Hope! He is our Hope and
He will prevail! Both of these
scriptures tell us of two different women who trusted, and hoped that Jesus
would heal their daughters. Both of them had Hope in the Lord to do what He
came to do, and because of their great faith, they saw the fruit of their
pleading with Jesus the Christ.
Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Matt 15:28
"Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."
And the woman was made well from that hour. Matt
9:22
Suggested Readings for
this week;
Monday: Romans 3:all
Tuesday: Romans 4
Wednesday: Romans 5
Thursday: Galatians
3:all
Friday: Galatians
5:1-6 &6:1-10
Weekend readings: Ephesians 2:1-4:13
Readings _ Romans 3, 4, 5, Galatians 3,5&6 Luke 17:6-10