by Renae Swanson

Created on: May 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 22, 2007

Above all Faith

Ephesians 5:16 "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."

Faith is where our relationship with God begins. Faith enables us to stand against temptation to sin. Faith gives us peace when we are going through a fiery trial. Faith is what pleases God. (Hebrews 11:6)

What is faith? Simply believing God. Believing that what he said is true and acting upon that belief.

When we exercise' our faith by doing what we should because we believe what God has said we grow as a Christian. Our faith is what grows. It becomes strong through use.

It is often the smallest use that makes our faith stronger. If we are not using faith every day, every moment, it will become weak and when the big trial comes we will not have a strong faith to make it through.

Faith is exercised in such simple ways. When someone cuts us off while driving. When our order is wrong at the restaurant. When our children misbehave. Everything that happens is an opportunity to exercise faith, to act according to our belief that we are 'new creatures' in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:6-7,14) A chance to exhibit his grace and patience.

As a believer in Christ we have all we need to live a victorious life above the power of sin. We have Jesus Christ IN us! It is Christ living in us that enables us. It is our faith that he is in us and that he has accomplished the victory FOR us already.(1 Corinthians 15:57, 2 Corinthian 2:14)

I believe that many Christians have lost sight of what the Christian life is all about. We talk about being spiritual' and forget that our faith is to touch our entire life. We think that reading our Bible is spiritual, but that being gracious when the server gets our order wrong is not. Or that only mature' Christians should be expected to exhibit those qualities. The victory over sin is as available to the new believer as it is to the one who has been saved for fifty years!

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

There is no Bible reading in that list, there is no witnessing in that list. Those are all attributes of the expression of faith in our everyday life.

Faith. Believe God and then ACT like you believe him!

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