Galations 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
“Let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
It seems apparent that the Bible has a few thoughts on the subject of faith; it is perceptible that God’s Word holds faith as an important component in the salvation of our souls; and it is evident from the Scriptures that Jesus Christ verbally pronounced faith as a necessary part of our sanctification, a step if you will toward full deliverance from our sins. Indeed, as Cullen Hightower put it, “Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there.”
The message concerning this topic will follow along three points: how to find faith, what faith can do, and where to aim our faith.
Sometimes called belief, faith is often thought to be a miraculous operation of the human heart. Of course, if this were true, everyone would believe the Holy Writings of the Bible, since we understand God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
The history recorded in the pages of our Bible is itself written to produce faith (John 20:31). Paul the Apostle, in Romans 10:17, says, “So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” Since it is necessary for people to have faith in God, to believe in His Son and His great teachings, we conclude it is necessary to hear those very teachings. We could argue also, in order to keep faith, we must continue to hear the Word through preaching, reading, studying, and teaching.
And our faith can be powerful. Reflect on, for a moment, what faith is capable of doing:
Recall the story of Dumbo. Born of a circus elephant, little Dumbo was grossly malformed. The other performers and circus goers openly criticized and ridiculed the pachyderm for its oversized ears. The plot of the story takes a twist when Timothy Mouse gave Dumbo a feather and convinced the elephant that the feather possessed the power of flight. The elephant gripped the feather firmly in its trunk, closed its eyes, and devoted itself to step into the air and fly. Dumbo flew! What caused Dumbo to fly? A feather? What drove Dumbo to fly? Faith in a ridiculous story created by a mouse. The story of the flying elephant is fiction, but the author would have to concede that one theme of the story could be that some things have to be believed to be seen.
For example, because of faith, Noah and his household are saved from the great flood (Hebrews 11:7); by faith the walls of Jericho fall (Hebrews 11:30); Numbers 21:8 records the Israelites are healed of poisonous snake bites because of their faith.
What can faith do? James 5:15 announces that prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. Faith the size of a mustard seed moves a mountain or causes a tree to uproot and replant itself in the ocean. Jesus says so in Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:5.
Finally, I’d like to address one last point to the message: where to aim our faith.
Simply put, direct your faith upward, Godward. It’s not a faith in what some people call Mother Earth or Mother Nature; it’s not a faith in a particular presidential candidate or in a nation of nonbelievers; it’s not a faith in mankind as universal ruler; and it’s definitely not a faith in ourselves as decision makers and promise keepers; It is faith in our Lord God above, because faith is truly a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8); it has tremendous focus in God’s Word, because faith empowers us to confess Christ as the Son of God, turn away from sin, turn toward the death, burial and resurrection of Christ; and it is faith in the eternal Deity, because faith keeps a vision and a mission within us that drives us to remain authentic in our quest to serve God. James 2:17 – faith, if it has no works is dead.
Consider the story of a woman who washes Jesus’ feet in the latter part of Luke 7. She humbly approaches her Savior, washes His feet with her tears, and dries them with her hair (verse 38). In verse 50, Jesus tells her that her faith has saved her. Because of such a tight focus of faith, that humble woman is blessed with the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
It is a faith of compliance, a faith that obeys – but it is also a faith that can be destroyed. One verse that reinforces the idea that our faith can crumble is found in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 18, where we are warned that men who have gone astray from the truth will upset the faith of some. Another verse is found in 1 Timothy 4:1, where it mentions some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
I suppose those of us who fall away lose faith in God and wallow in sorrow plummet into worrisome lives. We must remember: sorrow looks back, and worry looks around, but faith looks up. We are often encouraged to look inward, to our own instincts and gut feelings, yet Jesus, in Hebrews 12:2, is described as the completer and perfecter of faith.