Have Faith and Believe

Hello, Faith Family!

The verses I've chosen for today are well-known and because of that, they often get read without too much thought. I know I do this all the time. Today, I stopped on these verses because of the words "Have Faith" and "Believe". I think these words are often taken for granted. Every day, in addition to having faith in God, there are many things we put our faith in. Faith that the sun will rise, the grass, flowers, plants, and trees will grow when Spring comes back, we'll go to work, the chair we sit on won't break... so many things we put our faith in without even thinking.

But Jesus commands us in these verses to "Have faith in God." This means that we are to put our reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation; that we have a confiding belief in the truth. And God is that truth. Sure, probably all of us would say, "Yes, of course I have faith in God and rely on Jesus Christ for my salvation." These words are easy to say, but can be hard to do on a day-to-day basis. In reality, these four words are a huge command.

Not only does Jesus command us to have faith in God, He also commands us to "believe" that whatever we ask in God's name has already been granted to us. This doesn't mean that God will provide whatever we ask of Him. God is not a genie in a bottle. But, if we have faith, we are to pray asking for God's will to be done and we are to believe that what we have asked has already been done.

And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you,  whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you." Mark 11:22-24, nasb

Have you checked your faith and belief lately? Is your faith dialed in and fine tuned or is it checked out and on the back burner? One easy way to do a reality check -- ask yourself these questions.

Have I been relying on myself to get through my day or have I truly been relying on God? In my prayers, am I believing God has already answered them and then patiently wait for the answer to come?  Are my prayers spoken expectantly? Am I already believing God has provided and handled the situation?

In the prosperous times it is easy to forget about God. It's easy to forget that God is still with us in our daily lives. For me, it is easy to think I am on my own; doing this life by myself and I fall back to relying on self. It's easy to forget that God is still in control and that He always has been and always will be in control. 

God desperately wants to be part of our every day lives - no matter if we're in prosperous times or a trial. We just need to stop and listen. Won't you have faith, believe that He is in control and providing for our needs and let Him in today? 

Faithfully yours,
Kristie Livingston