Strengthening Your Faith

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We cannot please our Heavenly Father without having faith. He tells us this in Hebrews 11:6. It says that it is impossible to please God without faith, and that the person who comes to Him must believe that He exists; and that He is a Rewarder to those that seek Him diligently. If you are anything like I was when I first read this verse, the word “Rewarder” probably caught your attention. Who doesn’t like rewards? Most of us do. It’s why we stay in the race. We’re expecting a prize at the finish line. When I was just learning about God’s Word, I saw faith as a way to believe for the things that I wanted in life. I was very excited when I prayed to receive something, kept my focus and attention on it, and it manifested. I thought to myself, “I can get used to this. I like this faith thing!” As I matured in the Lord, I learned that I hadn’t even scratched the surface of the meaning of faith.

One of the most amazing things about God’s Word is that we can read verses like Hebrew 11:6 many times, and the meaning and depth of these verses will increase in our minds and hearts each time. The more we study the bible, the more we see how faithful God is to His promises, and this builds our faith and confidence in Him. It helps our relationship with Heavenly Father to grow.

Faith and rewards are not the same things. Many of us have confused the two, and as we grow into the men and women that God desires us to be, we should learn more about how to walk in faith. Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Substance has weight to it. We may not be able to see it, but we have witnessed the impact of faith, and we know that it lands a pretty significant punch to our circumstances. It’s real, and like many of God’s goodies, it is unseen, but weighty. Sometimes it helps me to think of faith as the place holder for my hopes as they bake in the oven, so the speak, and materialize into reality.

As young people, we can be very materialistic. If it’s not designer or name brand, we don’t want anything to do with it. There’s no question that God wants us to have the best, but we forget that He’s in charge of determining exactly what qualifies as the best, not us. We set our dreams on a certain status in life, and sometimes this leads to a mind-and-heart-set around faith that isn’t centered on Christ, but is centered on rewards. It’s more than just being materialistic. It’s looking in the opposite direction of our destinies.

God’s truth should be the foundation of our lives, and Heavenly Father will always back up His truth. As we study about operating faith, God will confirm the truth through our diligent effort to walk in it. He will reward us according to our faith, but we can’t make the reward more important than the privilege of trusting the greatness of our God. We can’t make receiving a goodie more meaningful than recognizing that God is righteous—He’s always right, and He knows what we need and when we need it. His Will is that we develop a strong core as His children. The way that we do this is to walk, live, share, and love based on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what our faith must be about. Living our lives based on the standard of Christ is how we make our faith strong.

Ephesians 1:3(NKJV) says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” This is not talking about some future event. God has already blessed His children with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places through the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is our connection to those blessings. Now, you might think that when this verse talks about ‘every spiritual blessing’, it’s referring to only those blessings that pertain to the manifestations of the gift of the Spirit; like speaking in tongues and prophesying. The truth is that ALL blessings are spiritual, because all blessings come from God, and God is a Spirit (John 4:24). Everything that flows from Him is spiritual in nature. Our responsibility and privilege as His children is to transfer that which is in heaven into the earth’s realm through the mechanism of our faith.

Faith is a part of who God is. Hebrews 11:3 (KJV) tells us, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” God spoke creation into being by using faith. He lives inside of us, so it stands to reason that faith would become a part of us as well. Through it, God has given us a strong foundation on which to stand and get things done on earth through Christ, but the Apostle Paul warns us in 1Corinthians 3:10-11(NLT), “10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.”

We must be careful that Christ is always at the center of our motivation to be victorious through faith. It can’t be just about what we receive. Our faith in God should be exercised to strengthen our relationship with Him and to build upon the foundation that Christ laid through his life, ministry, and love. We can have every confidence that when we step up to the plate with this kind of Christ-motivation, our faith will knock it out of the park every time. 1John 5:4-5 (NLT) confirms this by telling us, “4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”■

4TheChristianMan

Christian encouragement and inspiration for men

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