FAITH
AND TRUST IN GOD
Often times as Christians we say we have faith in God,
but are we really holding true to that. When bad times come where is your
faith? Faith and trust go hand in hand. If you don’t have faith in a God which
you cannot see, how can you trust that same God? We have to have a made up mind
that our faith in God is a sure thing. It is the foundation of our entire walk
with God. God is calling us to a place where despite what it looks like we have
to totally trust him. I don’t know about you but the God I serve makes
something out of nothing, the invisible, visible, and he works all things out
for us despite our lack of faith and trust in him. Let’s take a journey and
talk about faith:
What is faith?
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According to the dictionary its defined as
having confidence/trust in a person or thing, belief that is not based on
proof, a system of religious belief and the list goes on
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According to the Greek dictionary the definition
of faith is truth or truthfulness of God, and reliance upon God for salvation.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
What is trust?
-
According to the dictionary trust is defined
as a person or thing on whom one relies, the reliance is on the persons
integrity, ability, strength, surety, etc.
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According to the Greek dictionary trust is
defined as to expect, or confide
“But we had the sentence of
death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which
raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth
deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;” (2 Corinthians
1:9-10)
While we cannot see God
we have to be sure of him! We have to know that even though we can’t physically
see him he’s still there. God is a spirit; while we can’t see him we can feel
him all the time. Just take a moment and sit in his presence and welcome him in
I guarantee you will feel him moving in your life as well as see him do things
in your life.
When we have faith in
God we are able to speak to our situation. The bible tells us in Proverbs
18:21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. The same
situation we feel like we don’t have control over, we have the ability to speak
life to it. An example of this is found in Matthew 21 when Jesus spoke to the
fig tree telling it to no longer bear fruit.
“18 Early in the morning, as he was on his way back
to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it
but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How
did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 21 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do
not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig
tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’
and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you
ask for in prayer.”
If you read that passage
closely you see that Jesus told them one important thing, you must have faith
and do not doubt. You see when you doubt God you are canceling out your faith.
Your saying God I have faith in you but maybe you won’t do this or maybe you
won’t do that. One thing you must know is you cannot have half faith, it’s all
faith or no faith but the choice is ultimately ours.
When you were younger
did you ever play the game where you closed your eyes and fell backwards,
trusting the person behind you to catch you? That’s kind of like our faith. One
thing I always say is close your eyes and do it, that’s faith. Now you don’t
have to actually close your eyes but you do need to take your hands off of it.
When we welcome God into our lives, we are allowing him to take be our guide.
If you want a roadmap to life, try God! He will guide you! But you must let him
be the driver. We need to have faith in God that is not guided by the physical
things we can see but by the spiritual movement of God. Consulting God and
letting him make our decisions is so much easier than handling it all on our
own. So I encourage you let God be the leader of your path, just let him hold
your hands and guide you.
“We
live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
When we go through this
thing called life it is important that through it all we keep the faith! I
know, I know, it gets hard sometimes. Sometimes you want to give up and say
what is the use is but remember God is always there. Keep your faith, continue
to trust in him! When you wake up each morning ask God to help you to continue
to have faith and to trust in him. The world will give you a million and one
reasons not to trust in him and to make you feel God is not real, remember
faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen!
You can’t see the wind; does that mean it’s not blowing? As you go through life
there will be times when your faith is tested. You may not know where your next
dollar is coming from, you may not know why that relationship won’t mend, you
may wonder why everything is not going the way it used to. Life is full of ups
and downs, life is full of change. The only thing that will remain the same is
God. As much as God did for us we should totally commit to him. God never
changed, from the things you see in the bible to the things you see today we
still serve the same God. God was saving then, he’s saving now, he was healing
then, he’s healing now, he was blessing then and he sure is blessing now! God
controls the life we have ahead of us, so why not trust the one who has your
life in his hands? Keep the faith!
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7
In the bible there are so
many different stories of people having faith and trusting God in a hopeless
situation. I see so many of my brothers and sisters in this battle with me. It’s
hard everyone, I know it’s hard but we have to learn to totally trust in the
Lord. We have to remember who we are living for and serving. The more trails we
go through the more perseverance we attain “…because you know that the testing
of your faith develops perseverance.” James 1:3. Life was never set to be easy,
God did not say that, but he did say he would never leave us, he promised us
that! The first thing the enemy wants to attack is our faith because when he
gets that out of the way everything else comes with it: trust, hope, you begin
to doubt and now are bearing the fruits of the flesh rather than the fruits of
the spirit. Remember the enemy uses any door to get into our spirit and once
that door is open it opens up for him to attack us in a whole lot of other
areas as well. When we have faith we are able to wipe the devil out and
completely shut him down. The faith that we have can conquer all!!!! Not some
things, not most things but all things!
“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you
can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” Ephesians 6:6
I will say this once again
faith is the foundation of our walk with God, we can always stand on our faith
in God, it starts with faith and with trust!
In closing right now I
encourage each and every one of you, despite what it looks like, despite what
it feels like, close your eyes and just trust him. Let God lead you, let God
provide. Just decrease and let him increase. We spend so much time trying to handle
things, trying to solve every crisis yet at the same time saying we are
trusting God. We cannot trust in God and handle things without him; we cannot
trust in God and keep taking back what we have given to him. Whatever you’re
trying to handle, whatever you’re questioning God about, whatever you are
unsure about, stop right now and give it to him. God wants that thing you’re
trying to hide from him, that thing you’re trying to handle all on your own
while you’re giving him everything else. God doesn’t just want your all he
wants your "THAT", yes your "THAT"! Give it to him. There
are many stories in the bible that show us faith in what looked like a hopeless
situation and in each story God provided, God came through but it came with
faith and trust. My brother my sister, don’t let your faith grow weary in the
hard seasons in your life, continue to feed your spirit, continue to trust God
and praise him while you’re going through!
“These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which
perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7
Love y’all God bless
Tamika
