I have often wondered, “am I living faithfully”? It seems like there is so much to learn about this thing called Faith.
While it seems like such a simple idea there is so much more to faithful living than we realize.
What is faith? How does faith affect our life? How do we get faith? What does it mean when we say we are letting faith inform our life? . These are all questions that deserve an answer if we are ever going to learn to live faithful.
What is Faith
Faith is not some mysterious force that when we say we have faith all of a sudden what we say appears in reality. Faith is not a leap in the dark. If we looked the word up in a dictionary we would find that faith is defined as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something”.
Wow, “complete trust or confidence” that does seem like an impossibility these days. To say that I have complete trust in our federal government to do the right thing seems a huge stretch considering all the times they have failed to do the right thing in the past. Maybe we have used that little word faith a little to loosely.
The Bible gives a short definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, “now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So when we say we have faith we are saying that we are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. To be honest that is saying a lot more than what we think when we say we have faith.
I know having faith is possible and so living faithfully is also a possibility. Faith is reported so often throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Reading through the Bible there are so many times when we see faith molding and changing lives that we can believe that there is more to this word faith, and so I feel it important to share how faith affects our lives.
How Does Faith Affect Our Life?
If you look in the Bible you will see that faith affected the lives of many people.
The earliest writings in Genesis report the life of Abram. In Genesis 15:6 it says that Abram “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” the word translated as believed implies that Abram trusted God. He trusted in God so much that when God made a promise to Abram he believed it, he had what we call faith, and he was faithful.
There are many illustrations of how faith affect the lives of people in the Bible that it is hard to isolate one as the example. But, one that I always remember is found in Matthew 9:20-22. It tells of a woman who had suffered from a bleeding issue for 12 years. She had tried everything but nothing worked. When she heard of Jesus being near she found him and got close enough to just touch the hem of his garment. She believed that just touching the edge of his garment would heal her. Her faith caused her to take action on it and the result was that she was healed.
Faith affects our actions. It causes us to believe something to be true and then to act on that faith. In the case of faith in God our faith causes us to believe that God’s words are true and we can believe his promises with complete trust or confidence.
How Do We Get Faith?
Faith for some may come from belief that someone or something can be trusted, but faith for the Christian faith comes when you believe the word of God. Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about Christ”.
Thus, just as Abram believed the promises of God and acted out of his faith, we too gain faith when we believe God’s word and act on it as if it is completely trustworthy; you can believe it with confidence.
Letting Faith Guide Your Life
In the context of Christian living faith is believing that God’s word is completely trustworthy; if God’s word says something then you can literally trust in it with full confidence.
A great illustration of this is found in Matthew 8:5-10. It tells us about a Roman Centurion whose servant was paralyzed and suffering terribly. When the Centurion heard that Jesus was in town he went to him and asked him to heal his servant. In fact the Centurion felt so unworthy of Jesus’ presence that he simply said, “just say the word, and my servant will be healed”.
The Centurion trusted that Christ’s word alone would produce results. Such faith comes when we believe God’s word to be true.
Faith can move mountains. The problem we have with letting faith guide our lives is that we are not putting our complete trust in the word of God.
But that does not stop us from letting faith guide our life. If it takes a lifetime of trying, the key to faithful living is to keep moving forward. Keep reading God’s word, seeking understanding and living out our life according to our understanding of the word of God.
Choosing To Live Faithfully
Living faithfully comes as we submit our lives to the will of God. You can know the will of God it is recorded throughout the biblical record. When we are convinced that God’s words are true and faithful, living faithfully becomes a new nature within, driven by the desire to live in a way that pleases God.
We have faith because we believed and this belief, our faith, becomes a guiding light in our life. As we make choices because of our faith we will grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. If we let it this knowledge and wisdom from God will help us each day of our journey to live faithfully.
I truly hope that what is written here has helped you in understanding what it means to live faithfully.
I would love to hear from you and will try to answer and questions or comments as I am able.
May God richly bless your life this day and forever.
Ray
PS all the scripture quotes are from the NIV Bible.
