Devotional: 10/14/2019 - FAITH

“In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Ephesians 6:16

Towards the end of 2018 I made up this Bible plan where every month I would read and study out a different body armour of God and the aspect that went along with it. I got the inspiration from one of my pastors when he studied out the Holy Spirit for a month. Each day he studied out a different aspect of the Holy Spirit and then prayed in the that aspect. Another thing he did and taught us was the story of the Good Samaritan. One of the things he taught about this parable is the importance of realizing all the different aspects of and characters that are involved. Steve challenged us to each day take the story from a different perspective and view point; so one day you would read the parable from the perspective of the Samaritan, the next in the perspective of Jesus, the next in the perspective of the audience, the next in the perspective of the inn keeper, and so on until you exhausted all perspectives.

-       I thought it was a cool idea, so during 2019 for the first 6 months I challenged myself to do this with the Armour of God at the end of Ephesians 6.

Today I am going to just introduction the first topic in faith and how important it is with correlation to our walk with Jesus. This devotional is the sister of the podcast I did called, Faith_Intro which is now available on all the major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and more).

Point 1: Actionful Faith (James 2:20,26)

Faith is super important with our walk with Christ. Literally everything that we do is based on faith. Faith was one of the most consistent topics and points of Jesus’s ministry and it was the same during Paul’s ministry. 2 Corinthians 5:7 states, “For we live by faith and not by sight.” Faith is one of the major building blocks to the way that we live in general but is a major key to the way that we live and walk with Jesus. If we walk and live by sight, we will stumble, and we will fall. We will only do and believe in the things that we see and not the things that we do not see.

-       One of the first things that come to my mind is a picture that I first remember seeing in about 7^th grade. It was a picture of two guys digging tunnels one on top of the other looking for buried treasure. The guy on the bottom gave up and stopped digging because he thought he exhausted all efforts and that he will never find the treasure. Meanwhile he was one pickaxe swing away from finding all the treasure. The guy on top was the opposite, he was swinging and digging with full determination in order to find that treasure.

-       The guy on the bottom was in front, he was one pickaxe swing away from having all the riches he dreamed of, but he was walking by sight. He gave up and started walking away. Meanwhile the guy on top was behind, but he was determined. He had faith that if he kept digging and going that there had to be the treasure sooner or later.

There are so many things in this world that the devil tests our faith with, he puts stumbling blocks in front of us and he also uses things that are meant to be celebrated and a joyful moment to make us fall. The devil owns and runs the media, he tricks us into thinking death is a bad thing so we misconstrue all kinds of death (young and old), speculation and worry, then he owns and misconstrues the power of money which leads to greed, pride and a misuse of fame.

Faith is more than a thought it is an action.

-       A.W. Tozer said, “Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.”

James 2:20, 26 states, “You foolish people, do you want evidence that without deeds is useless?... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” In this passage the word for faith is the Greek word Pistis. This is the same word used by Paul in Ephesians and over 200 times in the New Testament. Every time this word is used it relates to a person’s action.

-       Faith requires risk. Faith requires a holy confidence. Faith requires a bold courage.

Point 2: Mustard Seed Size Faith (Luke 17:5-6)

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Like I said before our walk with Jesus is based on faith. We have to have faith in the Bible. We have to have faith in heaven and hell. We have to have faith in God. We have to have faith in Jesus. We have to have faith in the resurrection.

-       Through this faith in the resurrection we have been saved.

Throughout the Gospels they talk about the incredible faith of people and also the lack of faith of people. One of the biggest stories comes from John 20, the story of doubting Thomas. When Jesus rose from the dead, he spent some time with the disciples, when he first came and showed himself to them Thomas was not there. When Thomas got back all the disciples were telling him in so much excitement about all that happened. But Thomas did not believe them, he ridiculed them, thought they were making fun of him, and playing some cruel trick on him. So Jesus heard this and came to him to prove what everyone else was saying was true. Yet, Thomas needed more proof, he needed to feel the scars of Jesus; so he did.

-       John 20:29 states, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This is where we are. We have to believe. We have to have faith, especially in things we cannot see and is sometimes hard to explain.

-       We will not have the ability to see and feel the scars of Jesus, like Thomas, until we make it to heaven. So we have to have faith, faith that he died and rose from the dead in order for our sins to be forgiven.

The best news is that we just have to have a little bit of faith. Luke 17:5-6 says, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’” I never really knew how small a mustard seed was until I saw a picture of it when Andy Mineo posted it on his twitter. It looked just like a speck on his hand. The seeds are usually about 1 to 2 millimeters (0.039 to 0.079 in) in diameter. Like dude, that is small small.

-       All we need is a faith the size of a speck in order to move a mountain, image what we can do with great faith.

-       A little bit of faith is all you need when it is firmly planted in the right Person.

Faith is always going to be a risk. However, Jesus is always worthy of that risk. It is better for us to believe then not to believe.