what do you beleive about faith

Within The Struggle: What Do You Believe About Faith?

By Gracie

By The Grace of God M/M

When we find ourselves in a trial, test or the desert, we need to grab hold of ourselves & ask, what do I really believe about God in this? Is He able or not? "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame." Isaiah 50:7 We would do well to remember that God is always able! The key is, are we always willing? Our choice of flesh or faith is evidenced by our behavior."So as a man thinks, so is he". (Proverbs 23:7a) Faith is not about "making" God bend to what we think should or should not happen in our lives, this is not a name-it-claim-it formula, it is about resting in the fact that God is in control and having a desire for whatever His will is for your life.

As I have stated before, no one exercises their faith perfectly, but there are some things we need to understand about faith to help us walk in it more consistantly and confidently. Our ability to rest in faith is in direct proportion to how well we know God. How well we know God depends on whether we are seeking His face or His hand. When we seek His face, we are seeking Him, seeking to know Him, and seeking whatever His will is for us. When we seek His hand we are seeking what He can do for us without any requirement being met on our part. When we believe that our works, by themselves, in any form or degree moves the hand of our Living God, we approach in error. And we end up chasing our perverbial tail trying to figure out what the right combination of actions are that will impress God enough to move Him to help us. It reduces God to some kind of stingy, arrogant, sadistic diety we must perform for before He meets our need or moves on our behalf.

Our works need to come from a place of faith. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6 There is a fine line of thought and belief between faith and works. To put it very simply, if you are thinking, if I do this or I do that, or thinking that what you are doing isn’t "working", it reveals a "magic formula/works" belief system. If you are doing what you know to do, by being responsible, taking care of what you have charge of, asking for help, repenting when needed, and leaving the results to God, then you have a faith based belief system. "That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have trusted, and am confident of his power to keep safe what I have put into his charge." 2 Timothy 1: 12

We are required to have action as a part of our faith, we cannot sit in our homes, praying that God do this or that without being willing to do whatever is in front of us to do or be willing to be a part of the answer. Neither can we try to do "everything" and never rest in faith. We must trust that God is in control, is aware of everything and is able to bring about His will in any circumstance we find ourselves in. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6 We need to understand that without faith, it is the same as putting the cart in front of the horse - the cart will never be lead where it needs to go. Once you put the horse bridled by faith, in front of the cart (works), faith moves, quickens and motivates the dead cart to resemble life. But the cart in and of itself is dead - it recieves life, movement, effectiveness and purpose from faith. Yet faith is also shown by the carts movement. Faith without works is dead and works without faith is dead. They are inseparable partners, one without the other is dead. We need to understand that not only is it important what the order of our beliefs are, but that doing one without the other is vanity. Our faith motivates our action and our action evidences our faith. "You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2:22

Faith is not about our "feelins", even as believers, our "feelins" cannot be trusted. If listened to, they could lead us to walk as carnal (fleshly) christians. Sometimes moving in faith does not resemble anything that makes sense, can be explained or even brought into our finite ability to understand. At other times, it will require that we go against long ingrained belief systems, attitudes & familiar behaviors that we are used to, but are contrary to what God wants us to do or wants to accomplish in us.

Faith is taking God at His word, without proof that He is a "man of His word". We take God at His word by our actions, attitudes & behaviors. The reward of faith is two fold, we find that He really is the "God of His Word" and we gain in knowledge of who He is. The knowledge of who He is, allows us to find our place of faith quicker and our faith begins to grow. And growing faith encourages us to take God at His word in stronger, higher & deeper ways. This creates a cycle of faith that never ends, grows in every circumstance and leads us to where God created us to be...in relationship and fellowship with Him.