Abundant Faith or Lack of Faith – Which do You Have?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

Faith is an interesting concept but what is faith exactly? Hebrews 11:1 says “now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. The dictionary (http://www.dictionary.com/) has several definitions but the one that stuck is this one: the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

So how do we obtain faith? What you believe and what you put your faith in is up to you. The Bible says that faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You have to hear the word of God to obtain faith in Him and once you have obtained that faith, you have to strengthen it continually through the word of God. If you are hearing and believing anything that is not the word of God, then your faith is misplaced and you have believed and trusted in lies. When we come to Christ, the measure of faith with which each one of us believed may vary. For some of us, we have believed wholehearted and continued to strengthen that faith by soaking up the word of God. We are feeding our spirit with the word and our faith gets stronger. For some of us we may have believed with a mustard seed of faith and struggle to develop it as we should because maybe we don’t know that our faith grows as we soak up the word. If that is the case, let me encourage you. You can strengthen your faith in God and see His glory in your life. Spending time in God’s word and in prayer are essential to your spiritual growth. If you have a hard time understanding the Bible, no worries, you are not alone! None of us understand the Bible the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 10th time we read the Bible through! It takes time, meditation, guidance and illumination from the Holy Spirit and determination on your part to keep reading and memorizing even when you don’t get it. One day you will sit down to meditate and study the Scriptures and a light bulb will go on in your mind and spirit and you will say “Wow! I must’ve read this verse a hundred times and now I get it!” As you memorize Scriptures and you speak the word of God, you are reaffirming your faith and establishing the word of God in your life. Make it personal! Apply it to yourself and your situation and see what happens! Praise God!

The second verse today is in Hebrews 11:6 – but without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. When we were God’s enemies (living in sin) we could not please Him because our faith was not in Him, we didn’t care much about the consequences of our lifestyles because we were pleasing our sinful nature at the time; but once you come to Christ, it is your responsibility to seek God, pray, study His word, and build yourself up in faith. If you neglect these things and you have a mustard seed of faith, it is quite possible that that seed will shrivel up and you will find yourself back where you started because you could not believe. Friends, God wants intimacy, friendship, and trust from His creation. When we believe that He is who He says He is we are showing trust in Him. When we commit our lives to Him and are obedient to Him and do what His word says to do we are saying that we trust Him, we believe Him. When we trust Him, we love Him. He knows what we are made of. He knows what we are going to think before we think it, what we are going to say before we say it, He knows what we are going to do before we do it. His plan for us was written before we were born, everything we do and go through in this life does happen without His knowledge. He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! If you seek Him daily you will find Him! God is infinite, He is everywhere but He longs for us to invite Him in. To humble ourselves before Him and seek His presence, His counsel, His love, His conversation, sometimes just His ear! If you seek Him you will find Him! You have to be persistent and consistent. Don’t get discouraged because you sought Him today and you didn’t get the answers you wanted, or you didn’t see what you wanted to see. God does things in His time and He will reward you for being diligent in your pursuit of Him by answering your petitions, by speaking to your heart, by comforting you, by whispering in your ear, by revealing Himself to you. But He does everything in order and if you are not ready for what He has for you, He will wait till you are and you have to keep pressing on. Let us take up our shield of faith that can only be activated and exercised, used effectively, when our faith is grounded and founded in the word of God. Praise the Lord! As the Lord told Jeremiah to eat the scroll, I tell you eat the word of God! Eat the book and feed your spirit! Of course I don’t mean literally eat it but read it, study it, meditate on it, ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate your mind and bind all spirits that would try to keep you from feasting on the word of God, because when your mind is soaked up in the word your faith is strengthened and you are able to take up your shield of faith and quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. Hallelujah!!