How to Faith It

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact." -- William James

I have often said that faith is very misunderstood. Most people think that faith is some kind of extraordinary power to believe for the impossible or miraculous. Faith is not some mysterious power it is simply WHAT we believe. The exception to this might be “faith” as the gift of the Holy Spirit, but even this gift is a gift of confidence in what we believe or need to believe for.

The writer of Hebrews said, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

The King James version says it like this, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

The Greek word for “substance” is “hupostasis.” It is the compound of two words that mean literally “to place under.” It is simply the foundation, what is underneath. What the Word is saying in very simple terms is that everything begins, has as its foundation FAITH. Before it will happen we have to believe it. The opening quote from William James (whether or not he realized it) is just a restatement of Scriptural truth... “your belief will help create the fact.”

Now, the truth is that all of life is about believing. We all have faith for something. We cannot choose to have no faith. We are always believing and creating. While we cannot choose to believe or not believe, to have faith or no faith... we can choose what we believe. That is the power that we have. We can believe for success or for failure. We can believe for blessing or to be cursed. We make those choices in life.

We give life to beliefs by what we speak. The Bible says “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”(Lewis paraphrase).

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 (NIV)

Paul talks about the opposing forces that live within him in Romans 7. We are all like that. Darkness and light, good and evil are in us all. Some say that “you can have what you say,” but the truth is that we only give life to what we have by what we say. Good and evil are like glowing embers buried within us waiting for just a breath of oxygen to spring to life in burning flames. We get to choose which embers get the breath.

So here’s a thought. If I don’t verbalize it, if I refuse to talk about it then it will die for lack of oxygen. It’s like fire. It’s there but if I cut off its supply of oxygen it will die. That fire that is negative, destructive, expecting failure needs you to speak it, give it life. We usually try to talk it to death. That just gives it more fuel to live longer. Starve it to death by choosing to believe for good, blessings, success, and the good things of God. Breathe life into those!

Remember we are made in the likeness of God. God in the beginning had a thought, a belief and spoke. At His words everything came into being from nothing.

Prayer for today: Lord Jesus, “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalms 141:3 (NIV) AMEN.

Blessings!
Pastor Roger