Faith is a very important but also very confusing word. If you think about what faith means you’ll probably come up with a list of synonyms: conviction, belief, trust, confidence, reliance. We exercise faith constantly. However, we exercise faith in different ways. For instance, you can have intellectual assent (or faith) that God exists. But that’s different to having trust and confidence (or faith) in the God whose existence you’ve assented to.
The Bible insists that faith in God is essential. However, this faith is not merely a settled intellectual belief that God exists. It’s a deep trust, confidence, and devotion in the God whom you believe exists. Habakkuk 2:4 says, “the righteous shall live by his faith”. Just as you cannot physically live without food and water, so also you cannot spiritually live without exercising faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please him” (God).
Faith in God is essential because we’re unable to please God on our own. Even our best intentions and best efforts fall short of God’s perfect standard. Faith in God means abandoning your own efforts to try to earn God’s favour and instead trusting in God for your salvation. Faith is giving up on your delusions of control and instead resting on God’s sovereign power and goodness.
Faith in God needs to be constantly exercised
Over the coming months, we’re going to look at the story of Abraham, the man in the Bible widely known for his faith in God. Abraham’s faith was remarkable. Even though he was very old and his wife was unable to have children, Abraham believed in God’s promises that Sarah would have a son and that from this son would come a great nation. Abraham was by no means a perfect man – as we’ll see, he had plenty of flaws – but he persevered in faith. He was the paradigm of how to respond properly to God. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3).
Abraham’s story is immensely practical, because faith in God doesn’t come naturally for us. We gravitate towards trust and dependence on ourselves rather than God. Worry, anxiety, and doubt in God come more naturally to us, rather than faith. Abraham had to wait for many years for the son promised to him to be given. God’s promises didn’t make human sense. And yet, we’re told that Abraham didn’t waiver in his faith.
Faith in God needs to be constantly exercised. It effects everything in our lives: our decisions and priorities, our habits and character, how we handle stress and hardship. Faith, when correctly understood, always leads us to lean on God’s grace. It leads us to trusting and holding onto Jesus, the Saviour who ultimately fulfilled all of God’s promises to Abraham.
