Faith

Question: what is your definition of faith, how would you explain it?

I know in the book of Hebrews 11: verse 1 it says, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see."  Taken from the New Living Translation Bible.

Question: do you have faith according to what these verses say?

Before we get into this too far I think we need to think about where faith comes from.  There are two sources that come to mind.  In Hebrews 11: verse 6 it says, "So you see it is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him."  So in other words, every believer is given a measure of faith through God who draws you to the Savior, His son, Jesus Christ.  Without the Holy Spirit’s conviction and the faith we receive from God, the Father, when He starts drawing us we could never become true believers.  I praise God for His precious grace and the faith that He has extended to me and to everyone.  I say this because the Word says He is not willing that any be lost but that all come to repentance.

The second thing I thought of was in the book of Romans 10: verse 17 it says, "Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news – the good news about Christ."  In other words faith grows and mushrooms by hearing the Word of God.  Also, from my experience, faith grows by memorizing and studying the Word of God.

You may be thinking to yourself, I am in church three times a week but my faith is not what it should be.  Let me try to help you with this, in the book of Revelations where Jesus was speaking to the churches He said, "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."  Did He say that because there were people there that didn’t have ears?  No, Jesus knew people and He knew that people many times look like they’re listening but their minds can be a million miles away.  He wanted people to receive and learn and take it in and act on what they heard.  So many times God’s Word may penetrate the mind, or the head, and that is as far as it goes.  That is what is called head knowledge, what Jesus is saying is take it into the heart where you will act on it and it will instill faith in your life.

Now that we know where we get faith and how it manifests itself, how would you describe it in your own words?  Think about it and write down your explanation of what it means to you, then do your best to live by it.

This is the way I look at it.

If a person has a strong faith, they will believe for the impossible. When everyone else says it can’t be done, they will believe it can. When all the voices around them are whispering in their ear, "you can’t do something," they will already be working on it.  When they pray and the answer doesn’t come they will just keep praying and never give up.  People of faith step out and accomplish things that many others would never try!  When the scoffers come on the scene a person of faith stands their ground with their hopes fixed on the Lord, standing on the promises in the Word of God.  They are not deterred by how they feel or the circumstances or situations they find themselves in. They walk by faith and not by sight.

There are many examples of faith in the Word of God, let me share one of them.
King David when he fought against Goliath. David was just a boy among seasoned warriors.  While everyone else was shaking in their boots, David had no fear whatsoever, he had such a strong faith that God would give him the victory over his enemy he ran toward Goliath and killed him and cut off his head with no hesitation.  You can find the story in I Samuel 17 verses 32 through 51.


We can either chose to stand by faith or we can allow doubt to overcome us. So make the choice to walk by faith and watch what the Lord will do in your life. God bless you and have a great day!