June 13, 2019
“Faith” (Romans 5:1—5)
What is faith? It must be important! Look in your Bible’s concordance and you’ll see hundreds of verses that talk about faith. It certainly must be important. Paul says it is by grace that we are saved…”through faith”…so it is important!!
If something is that important do you wonder if you have enough of it? Jesus said, (Matthew 17:20) “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.” Can you move mountains that easily? Maybe the size of your faith is not even as big as a mustard seed. Should that trouble you?
It should trouble you only if you think that you are responsible to create enough faith. Scripture tells us that faith is a gift – to us – from God. (Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 &12:7-9). In the New Testament the Greek word pistis is translated “faith” and it is also translated “trust.”
That would mean that “faith” in God is related to trusting God. Trusting someone else is not really something we do…it is trusting that someone else is doing something. Truth!!! Jesus is our salvation and we are to trust him. When we trust him for our salvation, then we don’t have to be focused on earning it for ourselves and that frees us to be concerned with others.
Faith is demonstrated when we work to care for our neighbors. That is what faith looks like. And “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”!
Thanks be to God!!!
Pastor Mike
“Faith” (Romans 5:1—5)
What is faith? It must be important! Look in your Bible’s concordance and you’ll see hundreds of verses that talk about faith. It certainly must be important. Paul says it is by grace that we are saved…”through faith”…so it is important!!
If something is that important do you wonder if you have enough of it? Jesus said, (Matthew 17:20) “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.” Can you move mountains that easily? Maybe the size of your faith is not even as big as a mustard seed. Should that trouble you?
It should trouble you only if you think that you are responsible to create enough faith. Scripture tells us that faith is a gift – to us – from God. (Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 &12:7-9). In the New Testament the Greek word pistis is translated “faith” and it is also translated “trust.”
That would mean that “faith” in God is related to trusting God. Trusting someone else is not really something we do…it is trusting that someone else is doing something. Truth!!! Jesus is our salvation and we are to trust him. When we trust him for our salvation, then we don’t have to be focused on earning it for ourselves and that frees us to be concerned with others.
Faith is demonstrated when we work to care for our neighbors. That is what faith looks like. And “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”!
Thanks be to God!!!
Pastor Mike