Today you decided to sit
in a chair. It was a simple action and
one that you have repeated many times.
Did that chair ever NOT hold you up?
Chairs (unless defective) always hold us up. We come to believe that chairs will hold us
up because of experience. The same is
true about light switches. When you come
into your house at night you reach for the light switch to light up the room so
you can see where you are going. You
expect the light to come on when you flip the switch. Why?
You expect it will from years of experience of it coming on when you do
so. You believe it will come on. This is experiential belief, but it is not
faith. As we learned in Part I – What Is
Faith: Webster’s told us that faith is “…belief
and trust in and loyalty to God, firm belief in something for which there is no
proof, complete trust, something that is believed especially with strong
conviction, and without question,” and the Bible told us that faith is “…the substance of things hoped for and the
evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). This week we will see just WHY faith is necessary.
Faith goes beyond experiential
belief. It truly is the “evidence of
things NOT SEEN.” Today we will see just
how necessary this faith that goes beyond experiential belief is. Let me ask you something, “If you did not
believe in God, why bother having faith?”
What would be the need to have faith if there was no God? God and faith go hand-in-hand. Webster’s says that faith is belief and trust
in God. Change those words from nouns to
verbs and you have true faith in action:
I believe in God. I trust
God. You went past the idea of believing
and trusting into actually doing the action.
This is what God calls us to do with faith:
“But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” –Hebrews 11:6 KJV
“The man who approaches God must have faith in two things, first that God
exists and secondly that it is worth a man’s while to try to find God.” –Hebrews 11:6 PHILLIPS
I am sharing this article
about faith with BELIEVERS and some ask me why, since they already believe and have
‘found’ God? Not to sound harsh, but let
me ask you – and please honestly consider your answer, “Do you think you have ‘arrived’?” Even the great evangelist/missionary, Paul,
stated that he had not ‘arrived’ but rather kept pressing onward toward the
goal Jesus called him to. I know that,
even though I am 44 years old in the Lord, I have not ‘arrived’. I need to continue to take my faith beyond a noun
and enact it as a verb. I need to pursue
God. I need to go hard after him, for
when I do I am pleasing Him and strengthen my walk with him.
“But you, dear friends,
use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the
help of the Holy Spirit.” –Jude 19:20 ERV
“But you, beloved,
build yourselves up on [the foundation of] your most holy faith [continually
progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], pray in the Holy Spirit,” –Jude 19:20 AMP
“But you, dear friends,
carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy
Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and
outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the
unending life, the real life!” –Jude 19:20-21 MSG
The final challenging question I leave with you, in light of
what I shared, “Is faith still necessary”?
