By Mike Chaffin
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Farmers know about faith. Even before they put seeds in the ground, they must have faith that they will come up and bear a crop. They must hope for rain to water their seeds, and sunshine to pull the fledgling plants skyward.
When we hear God’s calling us to accept Jesus as our Savior, faith steps in. We feel a yearning for Jesus and want forgiveness. We desire a clean heart and want peace in our life. We put our hope in Jesus that he will wash away our sins and fill us with a peace that passes all understanding. That is the beginning of faith in Christ.
Faith leads us to live for Christ. Our service to Him is rooted in faith. for without faith in Christ delivering us from death, we won’t see Him in heaven. We won’t be there. As Paul stated when talking about the Gospel of Christ,
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17
Every Christian has a measure of faith. It is a gift of the Spirit bestowed on all believers. Some have more faith than others though. However, if we feel discouraged, or frightened, we can pray for more faith. God delivers.
I think Augustine has a great way of looking at faith. He said, “Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” Doubting Thomas was put to shame by his lack of faith,. But Jesus used his lack of faith as an object lesson. He told Thomas,
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29
The glory of a Christian life is looking forward to the day our faith will be rewarded. Be blessed, have faith.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your words of encouragement that we will be blessed who have faith in you. Help me to always believe, always hope, and have unwavering faith in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses probably qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
