( Photo Credit: http://gospelgrowth.net/faith-alone/)
One thing that I have learned in my journey of faith is that our spiritual progress is not based on our belief, our need, or our deeds. Our spiritual progress is according to God's grace and is based on our faith.
To believe is one thing, to have faith is to have trust in what you believe and to exercise that trust with the way we live.
You can believe a chair can hold your weight but having faith in that belief is proven by your willingness to sit in it. When you do, your faith is rewarded. You gain the benefit of being able to rest in the chair.
In the Christian life we test our faith through reading His word, through prayer, and through our service and obedience. If we are faithful in these disciplines, we are rewarded with the fruit of the Spirit. Try it and you'll begin a journey into faith that never ends.
I was moved to share this little message by a devotional by Derek Prince Ministries which I have included here:
"Faith in God’s Goodness
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. NIV
If I were to ask you what’s the most important thing – what’s the thing that’s essential if you are to lead a life that’s pleasing to God, I wonder how you’d answer.
Would you perhaps say: being religious, going to church, giving money to charity, keeping the Golden Rule, abstaining from sins, from immorality, from drunkenness, from things like that? All those things may be good, but none of them is the one essential thing for pleasing God. The one thing that God requires in all of us, the one thing without which we cannot please Him, is faith. And that faith is expressed in two ways.
First of all, we must believe that God exists. Most of us, I suppose, in our hearts, really are aware of that. But beyond that, we have to believe that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. You see, faith is, ultimately, faith in the goodness of God – in His reliability, in His dependability – and without that faith in God’s goodness we cannot please Him. It begins with believing in God and in His goodness. That is the root and the source of all true success and the life that pleases God."
Have Faith in the promises of God! Read His word and apply It to your life.
God,
bless all who read these words of encouragement.
Amen
