Hi how are you today? I am well. Last week I was back to work and in exciting news, my second book is being formatted at the moment. It should be out in around 6 to 8 weeks. I am excited. How was your week?
This week I want to look at the question we sometimes ask ourselves- where has my faith gone. It is generally in those times of sickness or discouragement that we can find ourselves asking this question.
Our faith in God and His Word is high when everything is going okay but what if it isn’t? Has my faith just walked out the door.
The answer is no. The Bible very clearly tells us that we have all been given a measure of faith in Romans 12:3. But what does measure mean? It means a limited portion. It literally means that we are each given the same measure. Nobody is given more and nobody is given less.
But what matters is what we do with it? For example, we all have muscles. But some people have small muscles and some big muscles. The big muscles are only big because they have been exercised. It is the same with our faith. It must be exercised. How? By hearing the Word of God.
It tells us this in Romans 10:17 in the NKJV Bible:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith only comes as we hear and keep hearing the Word of God. It doesn’t come through only listening to sermons or podcasts. It takes effort for faith to build and requires active not passive effort from each of us individually.
We do physical exercise to build muscles and we do hearing the Word of God exercise to build our faith.
So what exactly is faith? In Hebrews 11:6, it tells is that it is the substance of things hoped for. It is not an airy fairy pie in the sky thing but is a substance which means it is a real physical matter. It is just that we can’t physically see it.
This means as we hear the promises that God has laid out for us in His Word, we can believe those promises and know by faith that they will come to pass. But they generally don’t come to pass the day we hear the promise once. The promise has to be heard over and over again like doing push ups until it builds our faith so we can take hold of the substance of it until it manifests in the physical. Faith takes work.
Is it worth it? A hundred times – yes- if you want to live the abundant life that God has for us.
Is it always easy? No do we have to be consistent. We can’t read/ hear the Bible once or twice a week. It must be a daily part of our lives.
I am reminded of a story in the Bible where a man cries out to help him in his unbelief. Let’s look at the story in Mark 9 in the NKJV Bible:
18
Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless[b]generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I [c]bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “If[d] you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
A man had come to the disciples do they could heal his boy. But they couldn’t as they couldn’t cast the demon out.
Jesus responded to the disciples that they were a faithless generation. They had no faith in God. Even though they had been with Jesus they hadn’t yet learned to exercise their faith so Jesus rebuked them.
Let’s look what happened with the father. Jesus told him that if he would believe that all things are possible. The man cried out help me in my unbelief. Jesus healed the boy regardless and didn’t rebuke the man because he had only just started on his faith journey.
Jesus requires that we all grow in faith so if you haven’t started, you need to start today.
Start building your faith muscles and see the Word of God come to pass in your life. You will then never have to wonder where has my faith gone.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
0 Comments