All posts by Tom Savage

Faith is Properly Focused

Thoughts

Over the past few days we have been looking at the faith portion of faith, hope, and love found in 1 Corinthians 13:13. We have found …

  • Faith abides
  • Faith is a gift from God
  • Faith is the product of Bible saturation
  • Faith is based on facts, and today
  • Faith is properly focused.

The faith we are talking about is not faith in faith. Faith is properly focused when it is focused on God and the promises and the truths in His Word. In a favorite hymn of many years ago, the songwriter wrote

Have faith in God, He’s on His throne,
Have faith in God, He watches over His own;
He cannot fail, He must prevail,
Have faith in God, Have faith in God.

The first stanza of that hymn goes like this:

Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely.
He sees and knows all the way you have trod;
Never alone are the least of His children;
Have faith in God, have faith in God.

Allow me to ask you a couple questions.

  1. How is your faith? Many of us can relate to the statement of the disciples when they said, “Lord, increase our faith.”
  2. What are you trusting God for this year? Let me ask that in a little more detail.
    1. What are you trusting God for this year for yourself and your family? Increased Bible knowledge?  Boldness in witnessing? Stepping out of your comfort zone? Financial need? Would you be so bold as to write that down? No one needs to know what you are writing down, unless you want to tell someone, but what are you trusting God for this year?
    2. What are you trusting God for this year for where you attend church? Would you be so bold as to write that down?

This year will be filled with opportunities, challenges, and surprises. As we walk on into this year, let’s walk on with firm reliance and confidence in God. Let’s agree and believe that 2015 could be one of greatest years we have ever experienced. Tomorrow, we will begin to look at the hope portion of these three Christian virtues.

Faith is Based on Facts

Thoughts

When we exercise the gift of faith; the faith from God and believe in Him and trust Him, that pleases Him. Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Faith is based on facts. Genuine faith is more than a feeling. It is not just closing your eyes and believing something. Faith is real. Faith is based upon factual evidence found in the Word of God. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

So, faith …

  • Is not a feeling
  • It is not just feeling like this is something we are supposed to believe.
  • It is not impressions
  • It is not based on probabilities

Faith is a wise, spiritual, decision. It is our wise, spiritual, response based upon evidence; based upon facts found in the Word of God.

Faith is the Product of Bible Saturation

Thoughts

Romans 10:17 is an incredibly important passage for this point. Notice carefully the wording. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 10:17 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. If you have room for another favorite, I would encourage you to add this one to your list. If you don’t have a favorite, consider this one.

I am a strong advocate of reading the Bible and reading it out loud  As we grow in the Lord by spending time in the Word and time with Him, we find that our faith increases. Listen to these two statements:

The more our hearts and minds are saturated with the Word of God the more vibrant we will be, the more confident we will be, and the more clear thinking we will be.

If our mind and our heart is not saturated with the Word God, the more we will be susceptible to opinion, conjecture, impressions, and emotions.

The more we read His Word, the more we digest His Word, and mediate on His Word, the more faith we will have and the result or the product of all this investment will be even more faith. If you lack faith spend time with Him and in His Word. Read it out loud. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Faith is a Gift from God

Thoughts

In Ephesians 2:8-9 we find, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

We can see right here that faith is a gift of God. Faith is a gift from God. He gives us faith. Faith is not something that we tell ourselves over and over again until we convince ourselves it is true.

The faith that it takes to believe Him and believe in Him for salvation and for spiritual life as a believer is not something we work up or conjure up by our own will power. If it was, we could take some credit.

That’s why Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:9, that it is “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” If faith is something we produced, that would change the whole landscape. But, it is a gift from God and it is something He gives us by His own free will and accord.

Tomorrow we will see that we can actually build on and increase the faith we have. I hope you will come back for that installment.

Faith abides

Thoughts

As we launch into this three-part focus in faith, hope, and love we begin with faith. All of us express some level of faith everyday.

  • We take medicine and vitamins believing the ingredients inside will help. We do not know all the ingredients inside those little pills but we plop them in our mouths and swallow them with water.  We are expressing a level of faith.
  • We get in automobiles believing we will arrive at our destination safe and sound. We express a level of faith.

But the faith spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13:13 is so much more. Later in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he called people to examine themselves whether they be in the faith. People who are not in the faith, would be unbelievers and would express the opposite of faith, hope, and love. They would express unbelief, despair, and hatred. We see plenty of that in our world today.

There is so much we could say about faith, but in this focused study, let’s look at five things we can nail down about faith. Today … Faith Abides.

Notice how Paul the apostle combines these words. “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Earlier in the chapter, Paul wrote of things that would fail, cease, and vanishing away. But these three abide. To abide means to remain. To keep on being in existence. Along with hope and love, faith abides.

Have a great evening. Tomorrow we will see that faith is a gift from God.