Faith Introduction
Matthew 13:58 - And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.1
In the Gospels, the word faith is mentioned 40 times.
17 of those times, something happens as a result of someone’s faith.
12 more time Jesus refers to a lack of faith.
As we think of the topic of faith, we must ask ourselves, how much does Matthew 13:58 describe us?
The more I study about faith, the more I come to realize that faith has more to do with our commitment to Jesus Christ than our ability to just believe hard enough.
In 1728, William Law wrote; “If you will stop here and ask yourself why you are not as devoted as the primitive Christians, your own heart will tell you that is neither through ignorance nor inability but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.”
As we read through the gospels and the book of acts, we see mighty signs and wonders done by the early Christians, and we see the explosive growth of the church. Nowhere in scripture are we told that that stuff happened because of some special dispensation of God’s power that’s no longer available to us today. Rather we are told stories of great men and women of faith. Time after time, we are given examples of their extreme devotion to Jesus Christ and to each other. These guys gave up everything! They left their homes, they endured hardships, some lost their jobs because of their faith, and many lost their lives! And we can’t even get up an hour early to pray. We spend more time evaluating and critiquing Sunday’s sermon than we do studying God’s word. And yet we wonder why God’s not moving in our churches.
God increase our faith!
Our laziness and lack of commitment has produced a generation of Christians who wouldn’t know real dedication if it bit them on the backside! We don’t pray, we don’t study the Bible, we can’t worship unless all the conditions are just right, we don’t share our faith because quite frankly Jesus really just doesn’t mean that much to us. Our lives as Christians really aren’t any different than anybody else’s.
God increase our faith!
But here’s the good news.
It doesn’t have to be that way!
At salvation God gave us a gift. It’s called faith. And Jesus said that if we would just commit ourselves to Him then he would make it grow.
God increase our faith!
Jesus said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father doing. He also said that because of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives that we could hear the voice of God as well.
God increase our faith!
Paul said in Romans 3:22 that righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
God increase our faith!
He said in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
God increase our faith!
We don’t have to be weak and wimpy Christians!
We don’t have to have just a passing knowledge of the Bible.
We really can know God’s will.
We really can have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
We really can have our prayers answered.
God increase our faith!
1The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
