Ephesians tells us there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Truth is what sets us free with Faith. Example. If someone would write a slanderous letter about my wife, I don’t think I would have to read it; I have full faith in my wife and whom she is regardless of others views. I would tear it up and throw it to the wind. Do I have to read all the books of a subject to hear both sides? Do I read or hear someone slandering my Lord and Savior, whom I know has redeemed me with His blood and saved me from my sins. Ten thousand times I say no! I have the faith knowing what I know in what God has done for me and done for others. Mankind does not have to convince us something, only the truth can show us, and WE CHOOSE faith over fear. Having Faith in God gives us sanctification, salvation, standing firm, amongst so many other things.
One element of faith that scripture tells us, is to have faith as the size of a mustard seed. Life up your little baggies! That is it right there! A mustard seed. Do we have so much of faith to size against that little seed? We should according to scripture.
Another tremendous aspect of Faith is the result of teaching (Romans 10:14-17). “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The word of Christ! Knowledge is an essential element in all faith and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith (John 10:38; 1 John 2:3). How do we gain knowledge? We learn. How do we lean? We listen, read, and most importantly, ask God for the wisdom and understanding.
As scripture tells us the smallest amount of faith, like the mustard seed, has tremendous impact, when we apply the faith to action. From a grain of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain, even if its for a moment.
I want you to ponder on the questions, are there ‘impossible’ circumstances in our lives that God is allowing for His own purposes? And will we have faith in Him with our destiny? When scripture tells us faith without works is dead.
A familiar story tells of an old Scotsman who operated a rowboat to transport passengers. On one oar he had written the word Faith, while the other bore the word Works. The point of the story, of course, is that pulling on either oar alone would simply make one go around and around in circles. Both oars must be used to make any progress at all.
Does that apply to us? Absolutely!
Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul writes, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21). Thus, faith means putting your trust in God and having confidence that he will fulfill his promises in due time.
God will fulfill his promises! REPEAT THAT WITH ME
Another aspect of Faith is not by sight alone. When we look at the woman with the issue of blood in the Gospel of Mark 5:25-34, “A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse— after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.
Lets look at this for a moment. 12 years, this woman suffered from an ailment. Financially broke, stretched beyond measure from seeing multiple physicians, yet her scream out to God was saying, “For she had been saying to herself, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” If only I could she thought. And guess what happened, And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” It was ONLY by the hem of his cloak where her faith met the saviors promise. Common sense would say, for this woman to prepare your will, make funeral arrangements as doctors have thrown up there hands so now just wait on the angel of death. What happened? Her faith kick in and she began to see into the spiritual realm of what faith is! When we try and practice faith, our pride tends to get in the way, our doubt seems to drive us into another direction, our own understanding gets in the way which makes us think, “Why Bother! God won’t do that for me!” “Trust in the Lord with all your heard, lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”
The Gospel of Mark I think says it best, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” He’s not only talking about the saducees and pharisees but all whom do not have God in their lives. There are times where our lips praise God, but our hearts are far far away.
In closing, I obviously could not cover the entire basis of what Faith is, but scripture tells us this, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”
When we think of faith, when we live of faith, we become righteous in God, even our faith is tested when we go through adversities or hardships. When our thoughts come to us that we are doomed and beyond hope, where do we go? Or even when we question God and say , “God, I trust you to bring me through this!”
During a storm in the sea of galilee, Jesus was fast asleep on the boat; not worried at all. When the storm picked up and the ship was threatened to be sunk, this tiny ship tossing all over the waters, the disciples panicked and cried out, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
The disciples woke Jesus and He immediately rebuked the storm and how scripture calls it, a great calm was on the waters. Then He turned to his disciples and said, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
This event gives us a true insight into just how each of us, has the ability to reach out to God, Trust Him, and God expects us to use this to overcome doubt, fear, anxieties. In other words, have faith!
George Mueller said it rather well, “God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith…We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.”
Paul tells us in Romans, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
I would like for you to get your hymnals and turn to page 880 as in just a moment, we will be joining together in reciting the Nicene Creed. I want to you to try and focus today on knowing, the more we depend on Jesus, the greater our faith will grow. No matter how serious it is, our lives are in His control. Trust in Him. Obey Him. Listen to Him. We learn so much about God, in the valleys of life. Everyday we should strive to Read and Study Gods word, Pray without Ceasing, Trust with full confidence and be Obedient to follow Him in all aspects of our lives. I pray you can grasp a better understand of what faith is today friends. And it is in faith that we come to worship and praise God with everlasting hope, so let us join together in our Hymnal #880 as we recite the Nicene Creed…