FAITH IN GOD
Faith is not an emotion or feeling, it is an action. We see wonderful testimonies of ‘Heroes of Faith’ and ‘Saints Hall of Fame’ in Hebrews 11th chapter. These saints of old compose the “cloud of witnesses” in the beginning of the next chapter with their powerful testimonies to inspire the Hebrews to come to faith. In the following verses of the 11th chapter, we read that they all got approval from God. They made decisions that pleased him. God tests our faith in the crucible. (1 peter 1:7)
Do not throw away your confidence (Heb 10:35). Faith is a lifestyle, not an event. The righteous live by faith. FAITH can be explained in the following steps.
- Follow the Lord (Ephesians 5: 1): Bible tells us to follow, to listen, to obey the instructions given by God.
- Acknowledge His Sovereignty: (Luke 1:37; Matt 19:26) His sovereign will has given us everything we need for life.
- Imitate His personality: (1 pet 2:21; phil 2:5) Christ is our example and we are called to imitate Him.
- Trust in Him at all times: (Psalm 62:8, Psalm 20: 7): our God is a trustworthy God even in the darkest times and in the valley of shadow of death. He remains faithful even if we are unfaithful…always truthful. That’s his very nature and he cannot change. He is immutable – he cannot change.
- Hang on to God’s purposes: God has great plans for each one of us, plans to prosper us. (Jeremiah 29:11)
GODS PROMISES ON FAITH
- Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns; yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (Matt 6:26-27)
- And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
- And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mathew 11:22)
- And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Mathew 21:22)
- And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,(Ephesians 2:8)
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
- He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mathew 17:20)
- In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; (Ephesians 6:16)
- By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
- And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.(Mark 10:52)
- Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17)
PRAYER: Lord, help us to put our trust in you irrespective of the situation we are in. We are in the uncertain and unprecedented times with chaos, doubt and ambiguity all around. Teach us to understand that faith of the size of a miniature seed can move mountains. We acknowledge that we fall short of your expectations when it comes to faith. Fill us with unshakable faith that plagues, pestilences, diseases, storms and disasters cannot move us.