Matthew 9:29 "Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you".
One of the most quoted verses of the Bible as it concerns faith is Heb. 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God…." There is absolutely no doubting the indispensable need for faith in God. Faith in God is the power that motivates our entire being. It is a powerful faith in God that can and will sustain us when the adverse conditions of life strike our human frame. It is a great faith in God that enables us to give him the glory and honor when we are prospering be it spiritual or physical prosperity. We live the Christian life by faith not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Our faith is our means of overcoming the world (Eph. 6:16). I love to sing, "Faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world". The more trust I have in God, the greater will be my ability to live this live in a victorious way and be able to one day receive that crown of life (2 Tim 4:8).
As a young man of 18, I enlisted in the United States Navy. Friends, that is ironic because I could not swim a lick. The recruiter told me that I would be taught to swim. Along with several others, for a couple of weeks, I would go to the pool and we got to stay in the shallow end. One day the instructors asked what we were doing in the shallow end and told us to line up at the deep end. He then spoke some terrible word s, "Jump In". I still could not swim so believe me when I say, it took every ounce of courage I could muster up to make that leap, trusting that those instructors would not let me drown. As I think about it today, my faith in God is like that. My fear of the unknown is replace with a trusting faith in God enabling me to do what seems impossible. Because of my faith, I dare to do what others are afraid to do. Because I have a faith based on the promises of God I can accomplish wondrous things. Because of my faith in God, I can see the eternal purpose of God in everything (Rom. 8:28). Those who have a strong faith can and will even after experiencing some of life's bitterest blows, say "I know it is true". Faith perceives the invisible (Heb. 11:27). Faith believes the incredible (Heb. 11:13). Faith believes it can achieve the impossible (Heb. 11:29-30, Phil. 4:13). (Incidently, I learned to swim very quickly).
The writer of Hebrews tells un in chapter 6, verse 19, that hope is an anchor of our soul, both sure and stedfast. I am convinced today that the strength of that anchor lies entirely in the kind of faith we have in God. Without a strong conviction and trust in God, there will be no hope and if there is no hope, there is no anchor, and if there is no anchor we will drift aimlessly through this life and one day meet God in the judgement totally unprepared for that meeting.
We live today in a changing world but hear me when I say that the need for a strong faith in God, his son, his word and his church has not changed one iota since the first century. "O for a faith that will not shrink". If my faith does not move me to study, give, pray, attend, do all within my power to further the cause of Christ on this earth, then as someone once said, "I am doing nothing more than digging my grave in Satan's cemetery.
Charles Hicks
White House Tennessee
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