Faith (Part 2)
In our first lesson we began to look at how
truly important it is to have faith in our life. I talked about how
debilitating it would be if we had no faith what so ever.
- You would never believe anything would work out for your benefit, leaving us to live a hopeless life.
- We would never be able to trust anyone.
- We’d never be able to step out on faith and try anything new, because courage and faith go hand in hand.
- We’d never be able to believe in anything we couldn’t prove, see, or touch with our own hands.
- We wouldn’t be able accept many of those
historical and scientific facts that we’ve learned over the years. - And
especially sad is the fact that we could not believe in God, Jesus, the
Holy Spirit, angels, heaven or anything spiritual. And so we would not
only be condemned to a hell on earth, we would also be condemned to an
eternal hell. Why? Because we are saved by our faith in God, in the
saving work of Jesus, and what He has said to us in His word.
The ability to have Faith is such a
blessing and so very important to each and every one of us. I also
showed you from scripture that our faith is something that can protect
us from the many temptations and negative emotions that we can be
bombarded with.
The Apostle Paul instructed us in Eph. 6:16 to “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
When people put us down or try to discourage us it is our faith that says, ”Wait just a minute, I am a child of God and I know He loves me, so I
don’t care what you think about me or what I can or cannot do… I can do
all things through Christ who give me strength.”
During unfortunate times of tragedy, it is our faith that says,
“I know God loves and cares for me and that He will work out all thing
for the good of those who love Him. I believe He is in control and
somehow everything will be all right.”
When people say, “I can’t believe that you
really believe in all that religious mumbo jumbo.” Faith is what enables
us to see God, accept that He is, and accept that within the pages of
the Bible we see His eternal purpose and plan unfolding throughout
history. Faith is what protects us from the devastation flaming arrows
of discouragement, doubt, and unbelief.
I believe that when we are born we all
begin with the same amount of faith, but for some reason
some take more
advantage of it and use it more than others. For some their faith
remains small.
Why? Because I believe our faith is very
much like a muscle. The more you use it, the more your
exercise it, the
stronger it becomes.
If you rarely use a muscle in your body it
doesn’t mean that it is not there, it just remains small and weak. But
the more we use it and press it to its limit the bigger and stronger it
becomes. . And likewise faith grows as we use it. Even as it’s pressed
to its breaking point, it grows stronger and stronger.
Some people talk about their faith; how
much they love God and Jesus, how much they believe that the church and
loving people is important, and then there are those who actually
exercise that faith. (Consider James 2:18)
I read where someone said, “All of us
have faith but it must be released, we can’t keep it locked up inside
us. It has to be pulled out and expressed and used and that is done by
Praying, Saying, and Taking action.”
PRAYING
carries our faith filled request before the throne of God. And if it’s
His will He will answer that prayer in His time. Your request may seem
absolutely ridiculous to everyone else but He hears and cares about
what’s important to you. And remember He is able to do more than we can
ever ask or imagine.
Eph. 3:
“16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. -
First of all here Paul says I pray that you all will come to understand
how much God really, really, loves you. Why? So that you will be filled
up with God. Then he says… 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Paul
lets us know here that God can do more than we can ever imagine .. thru
His power that is in us. Prayer helps us to tap into that power and
helps strengthen our faith even more
In Heb. 4:14-16 it says, “14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. 16 So
let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will
receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it
most.”
We begin to
exercise our faith first of all when we chose to approach God and talk
to Him about what’s on our mind, believing that He is able to do some
amazing things; because He loves and understands how hard life can be.
Then there’s Speaking:
The there is something special, even powerful, about our words. What is
in your heart will eventually come out of our mouth. In Matt. 15:18
Jesus said, “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart.” That’s
why it’s important to pay attention to pay attention to what you say.
Why? Because it helps you discover how much faith you really have.
A person may
listen to a hundred Bible teachings on faith, but you can tell whether
or not that person truly has faith or not by listening to what they
say. If a person can still speak positively, with words of faith even
in a tough situation, that shows what kind of faith they have. But if all
you hear from that person is complaining, and whining about their
situation, or that saying something is impossible or can’t be done, or
worked out, then that also tells you how little their faith is. That
person is in danger.
Even if you
are a little unsure about something verbalizing words out loud (the
right words) in agreement with God’s Word will release faith and allow
it to go to work in the Spiritual realm.
Words like; ‘I believe that if this is God’s will He is going to work this problem out for me because I love Him.’ Or, ‘If
doing this is God’s will I believe He is going to help me through this
situation, this problem, or He is going to help me with this new
adventure, because I know that He loves me.’ I believe speaking words of faith over and over can push aside fear and doubts.
Those positive words of faith not only express your faith, they also re-fortify and build up your faith.
And then there are actually some Specific Actions we need to take to release our faith. When we begin to act on what we want to believe, God shows up.
When Peter literally stood up and stepped
out of the boat into the water, His action showed that he had faith in
God’s word when Jesus said, “Come.” It was at that point that God
allowed the unimaginable to occur.
Most of the time faith requires that we
step out. Peter was the only one who asked about and had the faith to
walk out on the water, he was the only one who trusted God enough to
take the first step.
Can you just imagine how great that story would have been if they all got out of the boat and walked to Jesus.
If what we want to do something, like Peter
sometimes we just have to trust God and have the faith to take that
first step. He will never fail to help us finish if we keep our eyes on
Him as we walk in faith step by step, day after day.
I believe that God wants our faith to keep
growing and growing. But that’s not going to happen if you just shrink
back in the corner and whine and complain, and do nothing to exercise
that faith muscle because you know that it may be uncomfortable at
times.
Just remember, the smaller one’s faith, the
smaller the shield you have to protect yourself from those evil attacks
when they come your way. The more you believe in God, and in your
position in His love, and the more you keep praying and the more you
keep stepping out on faith, the stronger you will become. You will have
more confidence. You will complain less. You will do more and you will
get things done without worrying all the time.
But I’m going to be honest with you’re
here, just like there is a price to pay to build up your muscles in your
body, there is a price to pay when it comes to building our faith.
I’m sure you’ve heard that saying, ‘No
pain, no gain.’ In order to have a strong faith many times we have to
step out of our comfort zone and step into the unknown ; like doing or
trying something we have never done before. Maybe God puts something in
your heart to go some place to do something you have never done before,
knowing that you will be a blessing to another and it will help you
grow as a more faith filled person enabling you to do even greater
things despite the anxiety you may have at first.
We just have to trust God and step out of the boat.
Some people do amazing things you can never
imagine yourself doing. Let me tell you something that you
probably already know, that doesn’t just happen overnight or right away. That person’s faith grew from faith to faith. In other words it grew with each new step of faith they took.
You are amazed and admire what these people
are doing with their life never having seen all little steps it took
them to get where they are.
If you go to a gym and ask a trainer to
help you build up your arm muscles he is not going to start you off with
the heaviest weights to lift. He will probably start you off with
something small, something he knows you can handle. And even using those
small weights will cause your arms to become a bit sore. But the more
you exercise and the stronger you become the more weight he will add.
Likewise, God is not going to give you any
more than you can handle (even though many feel like He is pushing you
to hard at times). As you move from task to task, or from one trial to
another from one adventure to another, from one challenge to another,
from faith to faith, you will grow stronger and you will eventually be
the one amazing others.
This can have an effect on every part of
your life; your walk with Christ, steps you will take to advance
yourself in your career or business, even how far you will go to
maintain and grow your relationship with others, even how you handle
trials and troubles in life.
My Challenge for you this week is to trust
Jesus and take those steps of faith. If you do so you will find yourself
growing from faith to faith.
Present your request to God. Talk to Him knowing and believing that He can do amazing things with you and thru you.
Proclaim words of faith burying those word of fear, doubt or complaints.
Trust God and take that first step. You just may be pleasantly surprised what you may find yourself doing.
Next week I hope to bring this lesson on faith down home on an every day level.
For more lessons click on the following link: