(by Pastor Norman)

“Now the just shall live by faith” (Heb 10:38a; NKJV) (See also Rom 1:16-17). That’s pretty clear; we as Christians are to live by faith (Gal 2:20). In scripture we see that we needed faith to become Christians (Rom 10:9,10, Eph 2:8,9) and that we cannot please God without faith (Heb 11:6). God promises that as we pray and bring requests to Him that are in line with His will (1 John 5:14) and in faith, we will receive (Matt 21:22, Mark 11:24). So, what is faith? I love the definition in 2 Tim 3:15b in the Amplified translation, “Faith in Christ Jesus [through the leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness].” We are to have the God kind of faith that, “calls those things that do not exist as though they did” (Rom 4:17b). This may all seem rather daunting but the apostle Paul told us to grow our faith by spending time in God’s word (Rom 10:17) and in Jude’s epistle we see that we can also build up our faith by praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20). Abraham took God’s word that he would give rise to a huge nation and after many years Isaac, his son, was born when he and Sarah were 100 and 90 years old respectively! Now that’s faith! James, the brother of Jesus, exhorts us to walk in faith and not doubt (James 1:5-8). “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 6:23; NKJV). Let’s all be an example of faith (1 Tim 4:12).