Faith, Hope, & LoveSample

What is Faith?

As mentioned on Day 1, faith is simply putting our trust or confidence in something or someone and having a belief that isn’t based on proof. 

She acted in good faith.
He clung to his faith that his wife would survive.
They took everything we said on faith.

A worldly faith is different from the faith we’re addressing here as followers of Jesus. The best place for us to learn about our faith is throughout the Bible. 

For example, it was tremendous faith in God that led a young shepherd boy named David to conquer a 9-foot Philistine giant in battle (1 Samuel 17). It’s by faith that we’re saved by the grace of Jesus (Ephesians 2:8). And when we have confidence and hope in God, we’re told that such faith is what pleases Him (Hebrews 11:1,6). 

We all have faith in something, but the question is, “In what?” Do we place our faith in our spouse? Do we trust in our employer to provide? Do we rely on ourselves and our abilities? We must place our faith in our God who loves us, because there will be a day when any or all of those earthly options will fail us. 

The reason faith is so important for the follower of Jesus is that it helps us to truly learn about God and His loving heart toward us. The more we learn about Him and experience His character, the more we’ll trust Him as He’s guiding us. Because there will be days when things happen that our minds can’t grasp and when the pain of a situation is beyond our ability to endure it. It’s in those times that our understanding of who God is and how much He loves us helps us rest and place our faith in Him. 

How do we live it out?
Simply start. We live out our faith anytime we choose to trust God despite our fears, when we use our spiritual gifts to impact others, and when we love others well by pointing the way to our loving Savior, to name a few things. Over time, we’ll see our faith increase. 

Just like our physical bodies grow, our spiritual ones do as well. This is a lifelong pursuit of Jesus and learning to trust Him. God knows our hearts and gets that living out our faith often comes with insecurity and fear. That’s why the author of Hebrews wrote that faith is what pleases God. 

What do I do when my faith is low?
We do what we know to do that will build our faith back up. We fill our minds with things that encourage us and make the conscious choice to say, “God, I don’t know how this will turn out, but I trust you.” And then we move forward, one step at a  time, even if the step is a bit shaky. Before we know it, our faith is being built back up.