“Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 (NASB)
I find it amazing how the Holy Spirit brings a subject to our minds bit by bit; a conversation with someone, a Bible verse quoted, and maybe even a song that touches the heart. Today, I share some brief thoughts on faith that occurred recently to me by such devices. There are many Bible verses that speak of faith, I certainly could not quote them all … it would make a very long post! I chose Psalm 46:10 as it highlights an important point in the first two words; “Cease striving.” We may live a life of faith in God, being fruitful but still struggling occasionally. Could it be that the source of the struggle is “striving” in our humanity to achieve our aims with God?
Thus, it occurred to me that there are different levels of faith – it is something that grows in our walk with God. Yet faith can be simple, as when Jesus challenged Jairus to not be fearful (doubting) but to “only believe” that Jesus could heal his daughter (Mark 5:36). This is the faith of a child who does not doubt that their parent will provide; we are called to such faith daily regardless of what the world says. This faith is defined succinctly in the words of Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Faith requires a believing spirit within the believer (it is in the word!). This is why we come confidently to our Father God in prayer; we come believing to His throne. To believe Him is to trust Him; “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Trusting Him alone; there is nothing that we can bring to His work – it is 100% His.
so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:5
Dear Reader, I pray that we are all working on growing our faith in Father God day by day. Just as a strongman trains hard to compete in the World’s Strongest Man, we need to train our faith as we grow closer to God. May our prayers be dependent wholly on His perfectly timed provision, confident that He can and will do it (Mark 11:24). The faith I am writing about us striving towards is both awesome and miraculous – it should be our highest goal in serving God. This is how I described this faith recently: “To borrow a phrase from a well-known sci-fi TV series …space the final frontier” – but for God’s children, it is “faith the final frontier!”
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Luke 1:37
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Devotional Treasures
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