FAITH

                                                       

FAITH

To have faith we also have to obey God. Our inner attitude does not define faith alone. (James 2:17) “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:19-24) “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter? And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” A person is justified by deeds only by man; because man cannot see our faith. Our faith is justified by God. Our deeds do not save us, but they are the evidence to our saving faith. If we could save ourselves by deeds, Jesus has not done any help for us. Faith saves us and faith alone. (Ephesians 2:1-2) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The disciples had great faith and sometimes we desire to have faith like them. Since we have not seen Jesus and still believe we have greater faith. “Because you have seen me you have believed, blessed are those who have not yet seen but still believe.” (John 20: 29) People that have seen Jesus and believe will not be punished, but that the people that have not seen Jesus and still believe are blessed. By having faith and believing in God we will have everlasting life. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”(John 20:31)

HOW TO GET FAITH?

To get faith we have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and we will get the gift of faith and have life in his name. Faith can also come through the message through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Sometimes we will have a problem believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins. We should then, fill are selves with God’s word and meditate it with our heart. To do this we should read the Bible. We will soon realize that Jesus “is the way the truth and the life.”(John 14:6) Once we become a Christian and have great faith, we can compare our life to what it used to be without God and we can see that the struggles were harder when we did not have God leading us through them.

We know that our faith will not always stay at the same level. (2 Thessalonians 1:3) “because your faith is growing more and more.” We can pray, study the Bible, go to church, and serve God. These things will not give us faith, but they can help us grow in our faith. We should always continue to praise the lord as a sacrifice! (Hebrews 13:15) We should “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” This will also help us grow in Faith.

Sometimes we get caught spending all of our time shopping, cooking, and even work. This will consume all of our thoughts and God will be slowly pushed out of our lives, then when we have a problem we will go to God and use him to help us with our problems but we will never think to give thanks to him. You should spend most of your time reading the bible, praying to God, and thanking him for everything he has given us. Jesus died on the cross for us and has given us some very great things; the least we could do is thank him for the stuff he has given us and praise him with all we have.

If we have done some really bad things in our life and don’t think that God would ever forgive us or even love us anymore, think again! God will always love us and forgive us, no matter what we have done. We could be the ones not honoring our mother and father or have even murdered someone, but they are both sins, both having consequences. Everybody sins and if we just ask for forgiveness and believe, we will have everlasting life and your journey with the Lord will continue in the right direction.

When we accept God into your heart, our life will not be perfect. It does have great things that come with it though! If we have struggles in our life that you think will never go away, we can pray to God and he will help us through it. When a problem comes up and we have nothing left, we can always count on God to be there for us! God is the one that we will always need and the one that will always love us! To know God will always forgive and love us, should give us the courage to love and forgive our enemies.

If we are striving to go in the right direction and want to live our life praising, and serving God, the door will always be open. To ask Jesus Christ to be in our life is easy but it will be the biggest decision we will make in our whole entire life. God has led me to do many things that will help his kingdom grow and they were things I never thought of doing, but through faith I did it and I was rewarded. Faith is a big thing in everyone’s life, I encourage everyone to go out and do the thing that God is calling you to do. This thing might be very hard to understand or you might not trust that he will get you through it but God has a plan for us and he will guide us through it and reward us for what we have done. We need to use faith and trust in God as we take these steps into the right journey.

DOUBTS

Doubts are when we are sceptical about something or have undecided feelings. Doubts can come running in our life at a bolting speed, and will compete with everything for are attention. Sometimes we can be drowning in doubt until something reassures us of our faith. (Proverbs 3:5) “Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” If we are a true Christians and human beings, we will experience doubts. We have not seen Jesus therefore we will have doubt. There will be a point when we hit something that will make us decide between faith and doubt. This will help us grow in Faith.

In the Bible there were people that had not believed in Jesus until they had seen him. Thomas did not believe the other eleven disciples when they had said (John 20:25, 27) “we have seen the Lord.” Thomas said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” Jesus then came in through the locked doors and said “Peace be with you! Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Doubts aren’t always a bad thing though. Doubts can help guide us through our journey with God. When we have doubts we might not think that we will still have everlasting life in Heaven, but doubts can help us have greater faith in the long run. When we doubt we will ask more questions to find out everything we want to know. We will learn why God is the answer and why the other theories have no way of being possible. We will also start reading the Bible more and going to church more so we reassure are faith. Doubts don’t mean you’re not a Christian or that you don’t have faith, it just means that you doubt because we believe in God and he is unseen! Doubts are normal in life. Its hard to build so much faith up of something that we have not seen and not knowing if it’s going to be true until we see it, but we need to believe and trust in the lord.

Have you ever got caught thinking “Maybe God isn’t real.” Or maybe “Is it to good to be true?” or “How could God have done this?” But the truth it is a great thing that God made this Universe. If we think about it God Is REAL because who could have made this Earth? Who could have made us? It had to be someone so great just like God.

Sometimes we even doubt because we have prayed and what we prayed did not go are way or we got hurt by a loved one dying. God disciplines us because he treats us as sons- everyone has had discipline. God disciplines us for our good, it is painful at the time but later you have a harvest of righteousness and peace for us if we are trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-13) “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet” so that the lame may not be disabled.”

Sometimes we will pray to God, testing him so that we can believe. We will tell him “God if you let me get a job promotion or get on the high school basketball team the next day then I will believe.” When that doesn’t happen it does not mean God is not real or doesn’t answer prayers, it just means that we want the job promotion or the high school basketball team more than we would love to believe in God. God is not a person that will hand us things when we so desire, but does answer our prayers. (Jeremiah 33:3) “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. ”He also promises to answer are prayers. (Isaiah 65:24) “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” Once we see beyond the image of God giving us what we wish for, his word promises we have confidence that we will receive anything we ask for. (1 John 3:21-22) “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

God is not a force that is just someplace. God is everywhere and he is a God that is personal with us and he is the spirit. He cares for us and he knows us all and even the number of hairs on our heads. (Luke 12:7) “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” It is easier to realize that God is real when you know that he is not a fairy-tale or a force; he is the spirit.

THE END

Life is an experience of living. We have two lives. One is where we are born from a human being on Earth and the other is when we die we will be born again and we will be sent to Heaven to be with God. Here on Earth we have troubles mentally, physically, spiritually, and many other ways, but in Heaven it is perfect. (Revelation 4:1-3) Heaven is where God lives. It is where God is on his throne and is the full and complete expression of God’s kingship. Heaven has no pain, sorrow, deaths, crying, or sadness.

In the Bible there is not a lot of information on Heaven is going to look or be, we just know that it will be a perfect place! We can only imagine what Heaven will be like, but God has way better plans then we could ever come up with, or even imagine. If we saw a mansion we would deliberate that the houses in Heaven will be three times as big, but that is not what they will be like because it would not be superior enough. Heaven is a reward for those who overcome everything in the life we are living. (Revelation 3:21) “Heaven offers rewards for those who overcome in this life.” To get to Heaven we don’t just live life, we have to believe in God as were living! (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

One of the many immense things about Heaven is there is never a time when God runs out of rooms. (John 14:2) “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.” God does not send only the best people, that have greater faith, or the ones that have done better things, he will send everyone to Heaven that believes in him.