A Gentle Reminder

Yesterday I received a gentle reminder that faith is active. It’s a doing word. Indeed the Bible tells us that we must exercise our faith, that is, we must act upon the faith we profess to possess.

“…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:17 (NIV)

Here are just a few points to remember:

• When we choose to believe God, our faith is activated
  
  "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." – Romans 4:3 (NLT)
  
  
• Faith is not something we build, obtain, or increase, faith is a gift from God which grows strong when acted upon through believing
  
  “Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger…” – Romans 4:20 (NLT)
  
  
• The Bible does not tell us to build our faith but rather to build upon our faith – our “most holy faith”, most holy because we’ve received this faith from our Most Holy God
  
  “…beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith…” – Jude 1:20 (JUB)
  
  
• We have all been given “the measure of faith” but it needs to be activated
  
  “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” – Romans 12:3 (KJV)
  
  
• When we listen to the Word of God over and over again, our faith will be activated because the more we hear the Word the more we believe the Word – genuine faith cannot be activated without the Word
  
  “…"LORD, who has believed our message? So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” – Romans 10:16-17 (NLT)
  
  
• Our faith must be tested to prove genuine
  
  “…even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold…” – 1 Peter 1:6, 7 (NLT)
  
  
• Step into faith and live
  
  “For we live by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

A Gentle Reminder    Shelley Johnson 04-Jun-2016