Faith Is Life Itself
November 16th, 2008
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV)
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:5-6 NIV)
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (Isa 54:10 NIV)
Faith is life itself. We are more than the things around us and more than our bodies and more than what we do. We are also more than the small amount of faith and hope that we might muster up by pumping up ourselves. Our real prayer and real hope comes from the LORD. And one of the most powerful passages in the Bible is at the end of Romans 8.
(Rom 8:26-39 NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. {27} And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. {28} And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. {29} For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. {30} And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. {31} What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? {32} He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? {33} Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. {34} Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. {35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? {36} As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” {37} No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. {38} For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, {39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Can we accept the reality of that regardless of what we see? And again Romans:
(Rom 4:19-21 KJV) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: {20} He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; {21} And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Although at times it may seem as if the smallest thing that happens around us is tearing us up we have to say to ourselves, “But God…But the God of infinite possibilities…the lover of our souls…the God who is love…who is faith…who at our very core is us — because we married Him and became one with Him when we accepted Christ, is the reality and nothing has ever changed except what we were looking at. Like Peter when he began to sink when he regarded the wind we have to reach out in trust and walk again on the water.
(Mark 9:22-23 NIV) “…But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” {23} “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
I am a believer and as the living Bible says, “even when we are too weak to have faith, He is still faithful. He cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13).” The husband sanctifies the unbelieving wife, if we need Him He is there. Our faith cannot fail in the end, it is His faith. Galations 2:20 KJV says “…and the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me…” I live by the faith of the Son of God. That faith says that “…everything is possible…” Hope maketh not ashamed and everything is possible.