FAITH

Faith is the beginning of the road which leads to God. For Christians, this path is a spiritual journey. It is the beginning of a living relationship with God where we trust in Him and walk with Him. Of course, to start this journey, one needs to firstly believe in the existence of God. This journey involves experiencing His love for us, believing in the goodness of His commandments and that He keeps His promises. It involves reading, believing and putting into action God’s life giving words which are written in the Holy Bible.

The Holy Bible teaches that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The faith taught in the Bible is confidence without doubt. It is absolute belief. Consider the athlete who through belief already holds the trophy in her hands before she has won the race – “the substance of things hoped for”. Consider the awesome nature of this world. Consider the universe with all it’s intricacies. Isn’t it evidence that God surely exists even though we haven’t seen Him? Faith complements our senses and understanding but is above both of them. Faith isn’t limited to our limited minds.

The Goodness of Faith

God encourages everyone to have faith. Jesus Christ said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). This blessing comes in many ways including giving the believer strength, peace, courage & tranquillity even in the face of adversity. The believer is a strong person believing in the power of God working in him. Indeed, faith leads to salvation and eternal life. The Holy Bible teaches “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) and Jesus Christ also said “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23). These life changing words and the perfection of God’s commandment of love inspire faith in Jesus Christ and in God’s word – the Holy Bible.

Another matter of faith is that Christians believe in God’s love and goodness for the Holy Bible says “God is love”. We have confidence as it is written in the Bible “that all things work together for good to those who love God.” (Romans 8:28). We all know that life involves suffering and sorrow. However, Christians understand that there is a spiritual side to these hardships that God allows so that we can experience the special grace of God working through them. This grace is also unseen but those who have faith see the evidence of it. And through faith we are saved because the Bible says  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Everlasting life? Shall we truly live forever? Yes! ¹ This is the Good News of Christianity and God’s promise of salvation.

Trusting in God’s Promises

Jesus promised “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And He said “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”. The Bible also calls out to us “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”(1 Corinthians 3:16). Indeed God is with us. Here, we again read of unseen matters – unseen matters that we do see. For the power of the Holy Spirit guides us to do good and helps us to live better lives. God’s Holy Spirit gives us power to break gambling and drug addictions, to mend relationships with people through patience and kindness, to help those in need with genuine love. This is the work of the Holy Spirit – it’s fruits – which we do see in the lives of those who have faith. Jesus Christ is alive. God is with us and the evidence is the real inner joy we have knowing this.

What are you facing in your life today? If you are facing trouble and adversity, or if you are hoping for something good but out of reach, Jesus says to you “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew. 17:20).

Do you face a problem with no solution? Are you in need of a miracle? The power of God can do miracles for you, but it awaits your faith. Remember what Jesus Christ said to the blind man of Jericho,
“Your faith has healed you” (Luke 18:42, Mark 10:52). And His saying to the man with leprosy, “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). To the sick woman He said, “Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you” (Matthew 9:22). To the two blind men who followed Him, He said to them, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29).

Growing in Faith

What about he, who is weak in faith? Let him pray as did the boy’s father who said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”(Mark 9:24). Here we read that Jesus performed a miracle for the boy’s father while at the same time answered his prayer to help his faith grow. To help our faith grow we pray, we draw close to God trusting in His goodness and we look to His goodness that we may experience it working in all situations. We read the Holy Bible and are encouraged by the life of Peter, the friend of Jesus, who at first lacked faith so that Jesus said to him “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) but Peter eventually became full of faith and the Holy Spirit. We read and are encouraged by how God worked a perfect plan through the suffering faced by Joseph (Genesis 37 to 45) and how He helped David against Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

Importantly, Christians must remember that true faith leads to a life of goodness because the Bible warns that faith without good deeds is dead (James 2: 14-26). The Bible says to us “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). And the Lord Jesus advised us you will know people (and yourself) by their fruits or deeds for as He said “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:16-18). Therefore, Christians affirm “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”  because what matters to God is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5: 5-6). The life of a believer is a life of love, it is a life of submission to the will of God. It is a life of purity and righteousness, a life of devotion to God, a life of prayer and many other virtues.

Jesus Christ further warns “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7: 21-23). And so there are those who call on the name of Jesus Christ, they pray and can even perform miracles but they don’t have the true faith – the faith which produces good deeds out of love. God’s warning with regard to eternity and judgement lies ever before us. Unfortunately, we can weaken and many are still immersed in evil and sin as if God had not warned us.

A prayer:

Grant me O Lord, that I believe in You with full faith. Grant me that I love and have confidence in You in
everything, and to believe that You are very good to me even if the world is dark in front of me. Let me feel that my mind is is too small to understand Your wisdom and judgment. I know that You are a doer of good, that You are loving, that You see everything and that You are capable of doing everything, and in spite of that my faith often weakens… so help my weak faith.

1. This is because God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, so Christians believe this and have faith Jesus Christ is the Son of God as the Bible tells us in Matthew 3:17, Mark 9: 2-7 “This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!” and that He is One with God as the Holy Bible teaches in John 10:30. We believe that He died for our wrongdoings but rose again from the dead and by suffering the justice for our wrongdoings we are forgiven – He is our Savior. ↩︎