Saturday, September 10, 2011

How to describe faith I

The Benefits of Faith 
                It's impossible to please God apart from faith. Heb 11:6 (MSG)
Hebrews chapter eleven is commonly referred to as the Hall of Faith. It’s called that because it talks about those in the bible who set great examples of faith. People such as Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham to name a few: who displayed great faith in God in what appeared to be impossible circumstances. The book begins by telling us that faith is the substance of what we hope for. In other words faith is essential to the Christian believer. When we talk about our faith to others it is sometimes difficult for them to understand not only why we believe but also what we call Faith. That may have a lot to do with our own inability to describe what Faith is. Not what your faith is, but what faith in itself is. Someone may ask so what is faith? And the most consistent answer will tend to be; Faith is trusting in God. But that leads to the next question about what faith is. How do I trust in God? Well you just believe! How and Believe what? All of these are good surface answer to the question what is faith. But they still leave us without a thorough answer to what faith is. The truth of the matter is faith cannot be summed up in one word or one sentence.
When we attempt to describe things to people we go into great detail to give them an overall picture of what we are describing. Let’s take a car for example. If someone asks you to describe your car, you could simply say well it’s a Chevrolet Impala. Well that is a description, but it is a description of a Chevrolet car it’s not a description of your Chevrolet car. If asked this question, you would most likely go into describing the color, the number of doors, if it’s an automatic or stick shift. You would describe the interior of the car. Whether you have leather seats or pleather…I mean cloth covered seats. We go into many details of our personal car, giving a complete explanation of our car. We have to exam faith in the same way. We have to exam every side of faith the way we would exam a diamond. Just like a diamond has many facets or sides to it, faith has many facets to it. Each facet of faith needs to be examined and described in detail for us to really understand and explain faith to others. So I want to take some time to take an examination of our faith and describe the many facets of it. But before we go into our examination of faith lets first talk about the benefits of faith. It’s important to know what you will gain from your faith just as much as it is to know how to describe it. This will give us a complete picture of faith.
The number does not indicate that one is more important than the other. They are all equally important.
The benefits of faith:
1) It determines what God can do in your life. We have the power to determine how God can use us. Faith is our direct link to the power of God in our life. The bible contains over seven thousand promises from God. And our faith is the key to each of those promises. Faith determines what God can do in your life.
2) It can solve impossible problems (Matthew 17:20). The bible tells us that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. The little faith you have is enough to produce the miraculous. It just depends on how big you see your God. If you put your little faith in a big GOD, you see the impossible happen. But if you see your God as a little bitty god who is limited in what he is able to do, well you will see little of miracles in your life. Faith can solve the impossible.
3) It is the key to answered prayers (Mark 11:24), Faith that God hears and answers our prayers. The bible tells us that we can have confidence that God not only hears our prayers, but that he will answer them. Faith says when I pray I already have it. Faith is the key to answered prayers.
4) It is the secret to achievement (Mark 9:23). With faith we are able to live the successful life. We are able to reach out and grasp our dreams. Faith turns our dreams into a reality.  Faith is the secret to achievement.
5) It is the basis for miracles (John 14:12). When you find a lack in your life, put your faith on it. With faith we are not only able to do miracles, we are able to do great miracles. The bible tells us that with faith we will cast out demons, lay hands on sick and they shall recover. The works that Jesus worked, we will by faith do those works, and even greater works. His greatest work was when He died on the cross to bridge the gap between ourselves and God. Ask yours self “Am I doing greater workers in my life than Jesus. How many have you led to the bridge? Faith is the basis for miracles.
6) It is the key to partnership with God (Romans 14:21). When we have faith in God we become partners with him. Abraham believed God and was declared fit, because he was linked up with God. When you partner up with God; When God wins you when. Even when you don’t know what to do, your partner (God) knows. You win just because of who you’re connected to. Faith is the key to partnership with God.
7) It is the way to please God (Romans 11:6). There are many things that we look at and know that we can’t accomplish them ourselves. But God wants us to trust Him with things we know we cannot do by ourselves. It pleases God when we step out the boat trusting that even if I fall I know that I have a safety net. I know that God will catch me. Faith is the way to please God.
8) It Produces success in life (1 John 5:4). Faith is knowing who is with you. We have confidence when we know that Jesus is with us. Confidence is not the same as arrogance. Arrogance says I don’t need anybody else’s help. Confidence says I know I can’t do it without other peoples help.  So faith gives us confidence. Confidence over fear; our faith neutralizes fear. God has blocked so many things that we don’t even realize, because of our faith. Fear sees your faith not you; Faith Produces success in life.
These are some of the benefits faith. But again faith is so vast that we could spend a lifetime giving the benefits of faith. But, faith is significant in our Christian belief system and it cannot be summed up in one word.
Now that we have the benefits of faith, we can turn to describing faith. But I will leave that for part two. But remember faith is essential to living this Christian life. Until next time Enjoy Gods Blessing!!!

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