Monday, September 7, 2015

The Substance of Faith

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 11:1
Today we live in faithless times.  Even to speak of faith in God is to invite ridicule or disdain. People are turning away from organized religion in mass but at the same time religion has become so organized it has become cold.  It is playing all of the notes without the music. While this could be reason for alarm, it is actually an opportunity for people to hear the gospel. 
In an effort to win his family to the Lord, a man pointed to all the "changes" in his life - his church attendance, tithing record, and involvement in Christian activities. One of his family members replied, “You've not changed. You're just like you've always been - only now you're religious.” In faithless times it is futile to blow the trumpet for religion.  People don’t need more religion; they need a living faith!
When You Lose Faith, You Lose Hope
When you lose faith in God, you turn to systems, governments and material resources. There is a spiritual axiom implicit here: faith produces hope, and hope produces perseverance. Without faith one will inevitably shrink back.
The Christian Life Is An Experience Of Faith
  • It commences in faith when a person believes in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
  • It continues by faith as the Christian establishes a habit of yielding his life to God’s plan and building his life on the principles of God’s Word.
  • It should conclude with a faith grown strong and unshakable through testing in which God has proven Himself to be the Almighty God of the Bible.
What is faith? How do you define it? When do you know you have it? What is it supposed to do for you?   These are important questions that many Christians find difficult to answer. Some people have the idea expressed by the little boy in Sunday school who, when asked to tell what faith is, said, "It’s believing real hard in something you know isn’t true." Then there are those who would say that faith is believing in something that can’t be proven true. Those are definitions of foolishness, not faith.
Yes, faith does require more of us because it does usually mean believing in something you can’t actually put your hands on.  We have faith in God but we can’t actually see or touch Him.  We have faith in people – but it is really in some quality of people like their loyalty or their ability to do something.  Our children have faith in us, that we will take care of them, wash their clothes, feed them, and come back for them when we leave them somewhere.  They have no proof of these things until they are actually done. There is proof of God all around us and some people still refuse to believe in Him.  Then some people believe in some really ridiculous things with no proof at all such as aliens, astrology, ghosts, the Loch Ness Monster, psychics, Karma, just to name a few.  I haven’t seen the Devil but I have seen the havoc he can wreak in a person’s life. He is real and active, prowling around looking for an unsuspecting person who has no faith in God.  I haven’t seen God but I have seen the beauty from ashes, strength, healing, and protection He provides.  I prefer to put my faith in God, how about you?

Scripture to Claim:
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him." Hebrews 11:6

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