Faith

Most believers know what the Bible says about the meaning of faith!  In the book of Hebrews it says this, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”  It also says this in the same book, “Without faith it is impossible to please God for those who come to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  The Word also says this, “The righteous will live by faith.”  So, are you living by faith, standing on the promises of God or are you just going through the motions, wishing you had more trust and faith in the Lord and His Word?

I think most believers struggle with what the Word says can be accomplished if you just had enough faith.  Think about this, the Word says, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain be moved and it would be moved.”  Think of what it says, a mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world, as far as I know, so how many mountains have you moved lately?  I am not talking about literal mountains.  It seems like in many places in the world faith seems to be more powerful because the people have no hope in anything else, so when they commit their lives to Jesus, hearing the good news of God, they cling to the Lord as their lifeline. They are not hindered by materialism and they don’t possess all the gadgets that we in the U.S. have that clutter our homes and our minds, things that take up most of our time and energy.

Our minds are filled with lies and deception from so many outlets, and much of it we let into our minds, either willingly or unwillingly, through the media or other sources.  Jesus said, “When you seek me with all your heart you will find me.”  How many times have we said, “You are all I want,” and maybe we really meant it at the time, but our houses and the places we go and the things that we do and the people we hang out with, spell out another story and the Lord sees it all.  The Lord may not be angry with us for what we have, because He blesses us with things.  What I think hurts Him and makes Him angry, is when the things we have take the place He should be holding in our hearts and minds, the things that bring Him down to second or third place or any other place but first place, that is what can make Him jealous, hurt and very angry.  When we put our trust in other things, which most of us have or are doing, I believe it hinders our dependency on the Lord and our faith suffers as a result of it.

Every believer has been given a measure of faith and it is our responsibility to nurture it and help it to grow.  If our minds and hearts are cluttered with so many other treasures and the things that we put our trust in, how will we ever have mountain moving faith?  We need to remove the things that occupy the thrones of our hearts and minds and put the Lord back where He belongs, then our faith will start to grow and prayers will be answered and mountains will be pushed aside.  The Word has so much to say about faith and it is available to every believer, but if we don’t stop depending on other things, very little will be accomplished.  If everyone that claimed to be a believer put their faith in action and if all had great faith there would be no end to what the Lord would do in our lives.

Jesus made a sad statement in the Word when He said this Luke 18:7-8, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Remember when Peter was put in prison and God sent an angel to help him escape?  It says that prayers were made without ceasing but what happened when Peter was released and went to Mary’s house and knocked on the door of the gate and Rhoda told the other believers that were there that he was there?  They didn’t believe, in fact they said she was mad.  That didn’t demonstrate a lot of faith either.  Sometimes when we pray for a miracle it is very hard to believe that it will really happen and when it does we end up shocked like these believers were.  Thank the Lord that He is faithful even when we are not.

It says this in Acts 12:13-17, “And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, ‘You are beside yourself!’ Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, ‘It is his angel.’

Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, ‘Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.’ And he departed and went to another place.”

If you are struggling with your faith, pray and ask the Lord to help your unbelief and help you to have a stronger faith, then, do your part by putting the Lord back on the throne as number one in your life.  Something to think about!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!