Your Faith In God Makes The Difference

“You can never please God without faith, without depending on him. Anyone who wants to come to God must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely look for him.” – Hebrews 11:6 TLB (Living Bible)

What is faith? How can my faith really make a difference in the one whom I have only heard of but has never seen? You may have asked yourself these question before, And by all means, they are legitimate questions. The bible says faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is having a level of certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot yet see it ahead.

Faith is a God pleasing virtue. As a matter of fact, the Christian life depends entirely upon it. Nothing honors God more than when we approach Him in faith. It pleases Him to a great extent.

“No man has sins forgiven, no man goes to heaven, no man has assurance of peace and happiness, until he has faith in Jesus Christ.” – Billy Graham

Without even thinking about it in a literal way all of the time, you do walk in faith on a daily basis. The bible teaches us that we walk by faith and not by what we can see with our natural eyes and we live by faith. [2 Corinthians 5:7]

You go to bed at nights and the furthest thing on your mind is that you may die in your sleep. Right? That is because, somewhere deep within, you believe that you will wake up the following day and that all you have planned for the day will come to pass.

You get into your car and your expectation [faith] is so convincing that when you turn the key in the ignition, your car will start and it will take you to your destination, you will be safe from accidents and that at the end of the day you make the journey back home. You sit on a chair and believe that there are no manufacturing defects and the chair will hold up under your weight. You get into an aircraft and you trust the ones in the cockpit to lift off, maintain the aircraft at thirty plus thousand feet in the air and to make a safe landing. Now, that’s faith!

The point is, the journey of walking and living by faith have great benefits and rewards. It allows you to experience God in ways that are unimaginable. The journey, although life-altering in some instances, causes you to have a full encounter with the full measure of God’s grace and His mercy.

Case in point:

Not too long ago, I was in a conversation with a family member. We chattered back and forth by means of Whatsapp and voice call. We discussed a number of things, mostly what my family member was going through. My responses while geared more towards helping to make the right decision with the best outcome in the end, it was also about helping to build trust and faith in God.

At some point in the conversation my heart became extremely heavy. The burden and the pain with it was surreal. Tear started streaming down my face, yet I could not let it be known that I was actually crying. That in  itself was more painful because truth of the matter, how can you have a conversation with someone and they not even sense in your voice that you are crying. Nonetheless, the conversation ended which gave me the opportunity to just let go of the burden through my tears.

Later on that evening, I was confronted with my own ‘demon.’ It was one from my mother’s house. I was the last person at her bedside when she transitioned. Every now and then, her yokes, her burdens, her demons would come back and try to burden and weigh me down. I went to bed saddened, with heaviness of heart and spirit.

At approximately 2:20 am the following morning, I went to my prayer area and knelt down to pray. Even before I could utter a word, I clearly heard the Spirit of the Lord say, “I know that you are very troubled by what’s going on in your family member’s life and even what’s going with you right now. But know that I have already answered your prayers. Everything that you have prayed for, I have already answered. While your blessing may be held up from getting to you, do you have the faith in God to wait it out? Can you still trust God to know, to believe that yes, it shall come to pass?”

My response was, “Lord, increase my faith! Expand my faith! Stretch my faith God to believe, to trust and to hope in you Lord that it shall manifest in the earth realm. Give me the capacity to be stretched beyond the natural mind of the human being.”

God’s assurance was not only comforting but it helped to build my confidence and my trust in Him. I was reminded of how much He loved and cared for me and that He knows every secret things. It didn’t matter what I was going through, it was a poignant reminder that no situation or problem is ever too hard for God to solve.

Trusting God Through Storms and Trials Requires Faith

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me?

There are countless examples of how men and women, dead or alive, have had to trust God through storms and through trials. In the book of Matthew 14:22-33 it is recorded for us a perfect example of what it means to trust God through your storm and how it requires faith not only to please God, but to help you to get through it.

Jesus insisted that the disciples go ahead of him by boat to the other side while He dismissed the crowd that He had just fed with five loaves and two fishes. The men encountered a great storm with heavy seas that not only caused their boat to be battered and tossed about, but one that endangered their lives.

At about 4 am in the morning the bible says, Jesus stepped out and walked on the water to meet them. They became very afraid thinking Jesus to be a ghost. Once they were assured that it was their Lord and Master who had come to them, Peter beckoned Jesus to bid him come to meet Him. Peter started the walk of faith walking on the water in the midst of the storm. But rather than keeping his eyes on Jesus, the one in control, he looked around at the high waves, became terrified that he began to sink.

You must be willing to trust God through your storms in order to make it through life and never let fear overcome your faith. Faith moves mountains as well as calms every stormy seas.

“God had told Abram, leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to.” – Genesis 12:1

When God said to Abraham to leave the country that he was dwelling in and go to another place, it required him to in walk obedience and to trust God every step of the way guiding him to the unknown. Abraham’s faith was tested but in the end, his faith pleased God and it was imputed unto him as righteousness.

Often times, faith means that you hold on to your dreams regardless of what life throws at you. It could also mean trusting a process that is difficult and painful, or that you are wrongfully accused of something you did not do still believing and trusting God for the best outcome where your reward in the end brings joy and happiness. Joseph certainly can attest to this. [Genesis 37-50]

In Conclusion

Perhaps your faith is weak right now. And even after reading this article you are still uncertain about your faith and the future. I encourage you to surrender everything to God. Let God take full control of everything – your burden, pain, grief, loss, insecurity, distress, frustration and all else that you are facing right now. Without faith in God it will be impossible to please Him. The important thing to remember is not the size of your faith, rather it is who you have put your faith and trust in.

If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, the bible says you can move mountains. It is possible for you to defy the odds stacked up against you. Take the leap of faith, keep your eyes on God who is the author, perfecter and finisher of your faith.