Our failure to receive God’s provision is probably the greatest issue among most believers that are waiting year after year for the manifestation of a blessing. When we’re sold out to our faith in Him, we know there’s no such thing as God withholding His blessings from us, and there is no such thing as God not providing for His people. He always does what He promises to do, and He is never slack concerning those promises. Our Master Jesus said in Matthew 7:11(ESV), “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” The Apostle Paul declared in Philippians 4:19(ESV), “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” God is a Good God all the time! So, there is no time in which He is not willing and able to bless us, and this is where our faith must be.
Our Blessed Lord also tells us in Matthew 21:22(ESV), “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” There are some things in life that we cannot know. There are some things in life that we cannot change, and of course, there are some things in life that we simply cannot control. If we settle this in our minds and hearts, it will lead us on the path of God’s peace. Our Heavenly Father is the owner of everything, and He has absolute and total control, yet He tells us in Matthew 21:22 that whatever we ask in prayer, believing in faith, we will have it. He is so good that He has placed this authority in our hands through Jesus Christ. He’s telling us that when we apply faith and believing according to what He has said in His Word, the thing we have prayed to receive will manifest and come to pass. This is Good News indeed!
Faith means to believe rightly. Romans 10:17(ESV) says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Faith comes from hearing the truth, and then believing what we have heard. Our problem is that often we hear the truth, but we don’t believe it and think we do. Someone might ask, “I think I believe it, but how do I know that I’m not believing God’s Word?” This is really quite simple. There are some things that are common to all human beings. They come standard with our packaging because this is the way our Creator made us. So, a common aspect of humanity is that we all practice what we believe. This is true on every level, without exception. We know we’re believing something when we begin to live it.
If we’re ill and our doctors give us medicine, we believe in the doctor and we believe in the medicine she or he gives us. So, we have faith in these things and because of it, we take whatever the doctor prescribes. This is not a judgment but simply a matter of fact in human behavior. We believe that we can get up each morning, and most of us never think that getting up each morning isn’t a possibility. We have faith that we will see another day, and because of this faith, we even make plans for events, encounters, and experiences that will occur in the future. So, all of us operate by faith and believing to some degree because we do it every day. The thing that we often struggle with is thinking that we’re believing in faith when something completely different is operating in our hearts and souls.
Ephesians 4:1-3(NLT) tells us, “1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” This is God’s standard for living a life of faith, but many of us haven’t considered meeting His standard as seriously as we should. We have faith for all sorts of other things, but when it comes to always being as humble, loving, kind, gentle, generous, and forgiving as God commands, our faith is not as strong as it should be.
Galatians 5:6(NLT) says, “What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” Many of us have habit patterns that indicate our believing is going in the opposite direction of love. We say we love God and trust in Him, but genuine faith in Him will cause us to change our ways so that our faith is expressed through His love. Ephesians 4:31-32(NLT) says, “31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” Our spiritual growth and the swelling of our hearts for God and others must increase. Our inner reality must then be expressed outwardly so that we are backing our faith in a way that pleases God and produces good results.
Faith is an aspect of the believers walk that is very simple. Yet we can make operating by faith surprisingly complex when we pray for blessings without having taken hold of the nature of Christ. Bitterness, anger, sadness, pettiness, resentment, insecurities, and bad language are not a part of the nature of Christ, and sometimes our refusal to get rid of these heavies can invite the wrong spirit into our environments. We must be obedient to God’s requirement and extricate these from our lives because they hold us back. We must have faith first that God has empowered us through Christ to lay down those heavies and then proceed to do exactly that. So, let’s resolve to leave anything that doesn’t match Christ behind. When this is our commitment, we’ll be energized in a level of faith and believing in God that will open doors of blessings that we’ve never seen before.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Where Our Faith Must Be”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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