Is Faith Necessary? Part Two

Being a child of God and a woman of faith these days takes courage, boldness, and consistency. Many people these days are simply not interested in living a life that requires patience, selflessness, and humility. As a christian, it is my responsibility to have faith in God, to love Him, adore Him, obey Him, and trust that He knows better than I do what to do with my life.

When I wake up every day, I know that He is there waiting for me, so I say in my heart, "Good Morning, Lord", and He always answers back to me in my spirit, "Good morning, sweetie", or sweetheart, or even "Good morning, silly", as I often think about something funny or silly, and He enjoys listening to my random thoughts about the world, about myself, about Him. I would never have thought that the Creator of the universe would ever want to be this close and intimate with me, and having this loving presence in my heart strengthens me, gives me an identity and a purpose, and when you are this loved by someone, hope springs eternal. I am so glad that my faith in Him is not in vain.

Where there is faith, there is purpose. The definition of faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. When we know about a subject or an issue through and through, we have confidence in our ability to speak about this issue or problem and how to solve it with the knowledge that we have obtained. When we have faith in someone or something, we choose to believe in them even though we don't have all the facts, because we see value in that belief; having complete knowledge of the subject or the person is not necessary.

Over time, we hope to gain more understanding about the subject or the person, but this knowledge only enhances our belief. Faith is a gift that we give to ourselves and to each other. Having faith in God requires that we be willing to believe in someone far greater than ourselves; when we choose seek Him out, He will guide us into deeper understanding of who He is, and He will give us a measure of faith that will enhance our own.

The first step on the road to practicing faith, is to choose to believe, and then God helps us out with the rest. We use faith every day of our lives, when we use products, tools, vehicles, services that other people created, and we rely on their guarantees that their products or services will be useful, beneficial, and that they will do us no harm.

Without those guarantees, our civilization would not function at all. We pass laws that we believe in, but what happens if we don't believe in them anymore? Whenever you see a country or a region where the people have no respect for authority or their own laws, you will find a area filled with chaos, deception, and oppression. That is why a country is only as strong as the people's belief in themselves, in their culture, and in their laws. Rules are good and a necessary function of society, but they are useless if the people refuse to abide by them.

How does faith affect the sin nature? The definition of sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. The law was given to help people see the error, faults, and nature of the fallen human heart, and to give guidance on how to live righteously before a Holy God until the Messiah could come, Jesus Christ, who would sacrifice himself for us on the cross to give a final and permanent solution to the sin problem.

Now, the people of the past were unable to follow the rules because of their rebellious nature, that is why God's solution was necessary, an infilling of His Spirit and nature to change our hearts and minds. We must be willing to accept His gift of salvation and learn how to be righteous by the word of God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we must be willing to follow the Holy Spirit's lead.

Faith.Obedience.Trust.Love. - these are the characteristics of a true christian disciple - and the greatest of these principles is love, for when we truly love someone, and we give them our whole heart and soul, we are willing to believe in them, trust them, and follow their lead. When we love someone, we become intimate with them, and we share our hearts with them. When we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, our spirit is renewed, born again. He fills our hearts with love, and transforms our heart and minds, so that we begin to see things from His perspective, and peace and joy becomes apart of our daily routine.

The world around us will be the same, but we will be different, and now we have a reason to rejoice knowing that He will be with us forever and that this world will not always be like it is today, but our hope is refreshed daily with the knowledge that Jesus Christ is coming back again very soon to give the world what it is desperately seeking right now, PEACE.

Every good thing that will happen in the future to us and to the world will be created by FAITH.

If you would like to step out in FAITH and believe, and have your own personal relationship with Him, repeat this prayer:

Prayer of Salvation

Lord,

I repent for trying to be master of my own life. I change my mind about who I want to be in charge of my life. I turn from my useless and unproductive thoughts that I am the center of my universe and choose to believe in the living God who created everything, including me (Acts 14:15). I have lived without a purpose but now I will live to hear and obey You, God (Jn. 5:19, 20,30).

I confess with my lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. I believe that God so loved the world He sent His only Son Jesus to shed His blood to wash away the barrier of sin (Jn. 3:16)

I receive You, Jesus as MY Lord and Savior (Jn. 1:11,12).

I welcome You, Holy Spirit, into my life to rescue and empower me and to restore me to intimacy with my heavenly Father (Acts 2:38).

If you just confessed this prayer, you are saved! I welcome you into the family my (brother/sister) I pray for peace, joy, and happiness in your life as you allow the Lord to love you and bless you and give you assurance of everlasting life with Him forever and ever......PRAISE GOD!

May the Lord keep you and Bless you this day....AMEN