1. Faith Means Trusting In God.
Trusting in God isn't always easy. Sometimes it can seem like trusting our friends or parents is a lot easier than trusting God.
why? I believe it's because we can monitor the things that they do. Trusting in what we can see gives us a boost in our pride because we can control what we can see.
When we can control what we see it gives us a sense of peace because the moment that we see something we don't like we have the ability to stop that thing and change the outcome of it.
But it's hard to control the things that we can't see because we don't even know what's happening.
Having faith in God means that we have to surrender our need to control things and simply rely on him.
Having faith in God doesn't come easy it takes practice and patience. We practice having faith in God through our life experiences and reading our Bibles. We gain patience through learning how to wait on God and what it looks like when we wait.
Now do not be confused, faith simply means trust and that trust is in God. But faith does not mean making blind and careless decisions.
Faith in God means that we look to God to lead us and direct our steps. It means that we submit to his will and know that whatever his will is, it's good and it's for our good. It means that we are active participants with God because faith without works is dead.
What is the benefit, my fellow believers, if someone claims to have faith but has no [good] works [as evidence]? Can that [kind of] faith save him? [No, a mere claim of faith is not sufficient—genuine faith produces good works.] If a brother or sister is without [adequate] clothing and lacks [enough] food for each day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace [with my blessing], [keep] warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do? So too, faith, if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective]. - James 2:14-26 AMP
So if we are believing God for something, no matter what it is how are we participating to see it come to pass?
You may participate in the way that you think (Good or bad).
You may participate in setting a goal and working toward it every day.
You may participate by what you fill your mind with ( hopefully God's word and throwing out negative thoughts.)
But how do you Get to the point where you can trust God?
It's hard to trust someone you know nothing about. It's especially hard to trust someone you Can't even see physically trust me I know.
Hard doesn't mean impossible.
Usually, when you trust someone it all depends on three qualities.
Their character.
Their track record.
How well do you know them?
When it comes to making sure that God has these qualities I can guarantee you he passes the test because the bible tells us so.
The bible is full of stories and testimonies from others who have walked with Jesus for years well before us and the best part is that most of them started like us, struggling to have faith and believing in a God they hadn't experienced for themselves. They can testify to his character.
Over and over again God has performed many signs, wonders, and miracles. Not so that he can show off his power but so that his people can have a firm foundation, something to go off to prove that he can be trusted. From Genesis to Revelation and from the Old Testament to the New Testament we can see God's track record.
The proof is in these scriptures :
Romans 4 - The Faith Of Abraham
Exodus 3 - Moses's call
Romans 16:25-34 - Paul and Silas in Prison
Getting to know God isn't hard. He makes it very easy for us by providing us with the bible and the holy spirit who is our teacher and reveals all things to us concerning God.
The Bible is like God's personal journal. It tells us what he likes and what he doesn't like. It tells us how he wants to be served and how he doesn't. It tells us what he requires from us and what his expectations are. And the list goes on and on.
This is how we get to know God and how often you read the bible determines how well you'll know him.
Of course, I've realized how thick the bible is and how much information is in there. It can be overwhelming at first and even more overwhelming when you know that God expects you to know what it says. That's why we have the holy spirit who is the teacher. The holy spirit can go into the library of our minds and pull from the shelf anything we need to use at the moment it's needed most.
2. Faith Means Believing God.
In this life we will faced with many trials it's just the way of life for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.
As Christians, our faith will be tested every day. I don't say this to scare you but so that you can prepare yourself and be on your guard against a real enemy who doesn't like you.
His dislike for you isn't because of how talented, beautiful, or successful you think you are. It's because you belong to God.
As a Christian, you have been marked, stamped, sealed, and approved to be a child of God
That's all it takes for the enemy to dislike you. You are valuable and you were brought and purchased at the price of the blood of Jesus.
Every day the enemy will target your faith - which is your trust or belief in God because he wants to take it away from you. He doesn't want you to believe in God and have access to all of the promises he promised you in the bible.
Your faith is a shield against the enemy. He wants you vulnerable and weak so that he can either recruit you to his side or completely take you out.
You can read more in Ephesians 6.
3. Faith Means expecting the unexpected.
Having faith is a concept that I believe the human mind will never be able to wrap itself around.
Faith is supernatural and it brings about supernatural results.
Having faith is simply trusting and believing God.
If you've ever seen the Polar Express then you know that in order for the children to ride the train, enjoy the entertainment, and travel to the North Pole they had to have a golden ticket.
No golden ticket means no ride and no enjoying the benefits.
The kingdom of God is like this. Your faith is the golden ticket, the currency of heaven to receive all of the things God has promised you but without you can not receive anything heaven has to offer because you have no right.
There will be moments in your life that will be deemed difficult. It will make you feel like you have come to the end of your road and there's nothing left for you to do.
But just when you feel like giving up God says hey, you have something a secret weapon that most don't have, use it.
You give God your Golden ticket, you make your request known to him and he stamps it. Because he is God and you are his child he promised that whatever you ask for in Jesus' name (as long as it aligns with his will) is yours, he'll do it for you.
Faith is expecting the unexpected, the things that "shouldn't or couldn't happen" to be expected "to anticipate it happening".
4. Faith Means Having Patience.
Often times faith is learning how to have patience.
We serve a God who does not and can not lie. We also have to realize that we serve God and because we serve God it sometimes means that we wait on God to answer our prayers and perform in our lives.
Serving God means submitting to him and allowing his will to be done in our lives.
Sometimes God answers us immediately and sometimes he makes us wait.
But with our faith, we can stay confident that God will answer and avoid growing weary because we know based on what we have read and seen God do in our lives that he can be trusted.