Faith Part 2: September 5, 2011

SEPTEMBER 5 2011. TODAYS WORD FOR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

FAITH

PART 2

DEFINITION:

A belief that is not based on proof; a trust in God and His promises.

SCRIPTURE:

“For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26

“I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

These verses that we have written above look at faith in a different way then what we discussed last time. We discussed how faith is the means of bringing us into a relationship with God by accepting His saving grace and forgiveness by believing on Jesus as our Savior. Today we will be emphasizing our Faith as it relates to our relationship with Christ.

The scripture tells us that faith without works is dead. (James 2:26 above) As believers our faith should be evidenced in our lives by our actions or else our spiritual faith is not much more than an intellectual acknowledgement of faith and has no meaning. We can have faith and sit around and do nothing, but God would not be honored and our faith would not be fulfilling. We must live our faith everyday so that our actions verify the reality of our relationship with God.

One of the verses we learned with our parents and at church at a young age is found in II Timothy 2:22. It reads that we should flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Teaching our children the value of living by faith is difficult. In their immaturity it is easy for them to succumb to the temptations of youth. Most children want to see for themselves what you are talking about and find it hard to resist the peer pressure around them. If we desire for our children to live by faith they must see evidence in our lives as to what it means. We must be consistent everyday in demonstrating our faith by our actions and our works or it becomes meaningless to our children. Children learn best by example.

Hebrews chapter 11 has a list of some of the greatest men of faith from the Old Testament. We call it the “HEROES OF FAITH HALL OF FAME.” It will encourage you to read this chapter just to serve as a reminder to you what these men accomplished by faith.

Those who live by faith desire to know God’s will for their life and to do God’s will. Faith gives us the confidence to do what God wants us to do even when it is difficult and seems impossible. How strong is your faith? Do you have the faith as small as a mustard seed? If you do Jesus says you can move mountains. Are you training your children to live by faith?

From time to time we all have mountains in our lives to move. These mountains may seem insurmountable. It is possible to move these mountains by faith even if our faith is small. We can have assurance that it can happen because Jesus said nothing is impossible to those who have faith. How many mountains will you move today?

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Matthew 5:6.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

PRAYER:

Help me today to live my life by faith. Give me enough faith that I can move mountains. Help me not to limit what You want me to accomplish today because of my lack of faith. Bless my family and together may we work to honor You every moment of this day.