Faithful on Fridays Blog

Watered-down Faith

If you watch any Christian TV at all you’ll find the word faith thrown around a lot. Granted, faith in God through Jesus Christ is what sets our faith apart from other religions, but have you ever tried to define it? When I checked the original language, Hebrew, I found 9 different words that we translate faith or believe. Well, I’ve done the groundwork for you so here are the Cliff Notes.

Faith is believing, no surprise there, but not just believing a fact like the sun will come up every day or when you drop something, gravity will kick in. It is believing God by trusting Him. It is believing that He has the strong arms of a loving parent always there to give support and you depend on it. Faith is like that.

I think this word has lost some of its meaning in this century. It has become watered- down and lifeless so let’s bring out more life with a couple more spins. Faith is the certainty that God will do what He says He’ll do. We can have confidence that whatever we or a loved one are going through, He will support us and get us through it. In fact, one of the Hebrew words has safety and security attached to it; faith gives us that assurance.

Another aspect of faith or trust is that of rolling oneself onto the Lord. I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “I’ve just given it to the Lord,” but Biblical faith is more than that. Trusting God with a difficult situation means you’ve rolled the disappointment, the worry, the frustration, the fear, I think you get the picture, onto the Lord. It’s true faith when you trust God and His divine ways with confident expectation and (here’s the last aspect of the definition) you wait patiently for His promises to be fulfilled. That’s the hard part but that’s the clincher.

Do you have anything today that you are believing and trusting God for? He will lovingly support you as you endure the wait. You can be sure of that fact but also be certain that you are trusting Him to do something that He’s promised in His Word. Have faith, my friends, as you roll your fear, your worry, your frustrations, your anger, your confusion, or your anything onto the Lord. That is kingdom living and that is the good life; it’s based on faith.

Let’s try to live like Father Abraham who, “never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. (Romans 4:20, 21 NLT)

Watered-down? Not anymore.