Have you ever looked closely at what the Bible says about faith? In Matthew 17:20 it says “And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Do you have that kind of faith? Furthermore, what is faith? In Hebrews 11:1 the Bible defines faith as “… the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Where does that assurance come from?
Have you ever prayed to God about something you wanted and had the prayer go unanswered or had it answered, but not in the way you expected? Have you ever prayed for God to heal someone of a terminal disease and the person died anyway? Have you prayed for God to remove some mountain in your life (some affliction or obstacle to you achieving a desired goal) only to have the mountain remain? At the time did you think, “If I only had more faith, this person would not have died.”? Well I have some news for you; there is absolutely positively no power in faith. In other words, faith does not have the power to do anything. The only value of faith is found in the object of your faith…God Almighty.
Some Christians have a distorted idea of what faith is. They believe that if they want a mountain to move to the sea, all they have to do is have "great faith" in the Lord and the mountain will obey their command. If the mountain doesn't move, then they didn't have enough faith. What they are really doing has nothing to do with faith. They are trying to perform a magic trick using God as the magic wand. In other words, they have something they want done and they are trying to get God to do it.
True faith never begins with us. It begins with God. In Romans 4:20-21, Paul described faith this way, “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” There is that “assurance” word again. Faith is the full assurance that what God promises He will do, He can do. Hebrews 11:1 said that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. So, putting these two verses together, when the things that we hope for are the same as the things that God promises, He will be faithful to do what He promised.
How much faith do we need to move mountains? We need just enough faith to take God at his word. To have faith that He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. Here is the really good part; it is the exact same faith we exhibited when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We took His word that He is who He says He is (the Son of God), He did what He said He did (died on the cross in payment for our sins), and He will do what He says He will do (give us eternal life). We often look at people that God has used greatly, such as Billy Graham, and say, “There is a man of great faith!” Billy Graham doesn’t have great faith; He has a great God. Billy Graham simply trusted God to do the things in His life that He promised He would do, and God did the rest.
Have you ever prayed to God about something you wanted and had the prayer go unanswered or had it answered, but not in the way you expected? Have you ever prayed for God to heal someone of a terminal disease and the person died anyway? Have you prayed for God to remove some mountain in your life (some affliction or obstacle to you achieving a desired goal) only to have the mountain remain? At the time did you think, “If I only had more faith, this person would not have died.”? Well I have some news for you; there is absolutely positively no power in faith. In other words, faith does not have the power to do anything. The only value of faith is found in the object of your faith…God Almighty.
Some Christians have a distorted idea of what faith is. They believe that if they want a mountain to move to the sea, all they have to do is have "great faith" in the Lord and the mountain will obey their command. If the mountain doesn't move, then they didn't have enough faith. What they are really doing has nothing to do with faith. They are trying to perform a magic trick using God as the magic wand. In other words, they have something they want done and they are trying to get God to do it.
True faith never begins with us. It begins with God. In Romans 4:20-21, Paul described faith this way, “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” There is that “assurance” word again. Faith is the full assurance that what God promises He will do, He can do. Hebrews 11:1 said that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. So, putting these two verses together, when the things that we hope for are the same as the things that God promises, He will be faithful to do what He promised.
How much faith do we need to move mountains? We need just enough faith to take God at his word. To have faith that He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. Here is the really good part; it is the exact same faith we exhibited when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We took His word that He is who He says He is (the Son of God), He did what He said He did (died on the cross in payment for our sins), and He will do what He says He will do (give us eternal life). We often look at people that God has used greatly, such as Billy Graham, and say, “There is a man of great faith!” Billy Graham doesn’t have great faith; He has a great God. Billy Graham simply trusted God to do the things in His life that He promised He would do, and God did the rest.
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