Faith YOU CAN'T MAKE YOURSELF BELIEVE
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb. 11:1.
The story is told of a country church that had called a special prayer meeting to pray for rain. There had been no rain for some time, and the crops were drying up. One little girl who came to the meeting brought her umbrella. The people smiled at the faith of a little child. But it rained. Now let me ask you something: Did it rain because she brought her umbrella? Or did she bring her umbrella because she knew it was going to rain? The way you interpret this story may show quite a bit about how you define faith.
What about Peter and John at the gate Beautiful? They said to the lame beggar, "In the name of Jesus...rise up and walk." Apparently the lame man needed a bit of additional encouragement, for it says in Acts 3:7, 8, "And he [Peter] took him by the right hand, and lifted him up." But he was healed, and he "leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."
Did this man receive healing because Peter and John had enough courage to walk up to a strange beggar and command him to be healed? Or did they have enough courage to do what they did because they already knew that God was going to heal him?
Perhaps the most common misunderstanding of faith is that it is something you work on--something you work up. That the way to have faith is to try hard to make yourself believe something is going to happen, and that if you succeed, it will happen. But the greatest evidence of genuine faith is that it is totally spontaneous. It comes naturally, as a result of something else. If we get that one point straight, it will save us from a great deal of difficulty. Ephesians 2:8 says that by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. If faith is a gift that comes from God, then the only way to obtain genuine faith would be to come into a relationship with God in order to receive His gift. We don't work to receive a gift. We simply come to the one who is giving and accept it. So it is by coming to God that we receive His gift of faith.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb. 11:1.
The story is told of a country church that had called a special prayer meeting to pray for rain. There had been no rain for some time, and the crops were drying up. One little girl who came to the meeting brought her umbrella. The people smiled at the faith of a little child. But it rained. Now let me ask you something: Did it rain because she brought her umbrella? Or did she bring her umbrella because she knew it was going to rain? The way you interpret this story may show quite a bit about how you define faith.
What about Peter and John at the gate Beautiful? They said to the lame beggar, "In the name of Jesus...rise up and walk." Apparently the lame man needed a bit of additional encouragement, for it says in Acts 3:7, 8, "And he [Peter] took him by the right hand, and lifted him up." But he was healed, and he "leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."
Did this man receive healing because Peter and John had enough courage to walk up to a strange beggar and command him to be healed? Or did they have enough courage to do what they did because they already knew that God was going to heal him?
Perhaps the most common misunderstanding of faith is that it is something you work on--something you work up. That the way to have faith is to try hard to make yourself believe something is going to happen, and that if you succeed, it will happen. But the greatest evidence of genuine faith is that it is totally spontaneous. It comes naturally, as a result of something else. If we get that one point straight, it will save us from a great deal of difficulty. Ephesians 2:8 says that by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. If faith is a gift that comes from God, then the only way to obtain genuine faith would be to come into a relationship with God in order to receive His gift. We don't work to receive a gift. We simply come to the one who is giving and accept it. So it is by coming to God that we receive His gift of faith.
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