The Bible tells us that faith is “the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see“ (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). It’s believing that God will provide you with the new job you have been praying for. It’s believing that your struggling child will pass his classes and graduate High School. It’s believing for restoration in your marriage. Faith is believing that whatever you are dealing with right now, God is working it out for your good. But we need to be careful not to confuse faith with hope.

Hope and faith are different things. Faith often starts with hope, but doesn’t end there. Hope opens your heart to see and want something different than your current circumstances. Hope is always expecting results in an unspecified time in the future. If you are praying, “Lord, I know you can heal me and I pray that you will (someday)”, you are praying in hope- not faith. You hope to be healed. But, in contrast, if you pray, “Lord, by the stripes that Jesus bore on his body, I have been made whole. I believe I receive healing right now in Jesus name.” That is faith. Did you notice that faith is “now” oriented? It’s not “later” or “someday”; it’s “now.” Even if you don’t see or feel things change, faith is believing it has. It is “the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen”. Faith is hope that has moved into confident expectation!

1 Peter 1:7 tells us that faith has a “greater worth than gold.” 1 Timothy 6:11 tells us to “pursue faith” and Galatians 2:20 says to “live by faith.” Faith is very important and essential to the Christian life. Here are some things that we have through faith:

• Salvation – 1 Peter 1:9
• Justification (made right with God) – Galatians 2:16
• Redemption (forgiveness of our sins) – Ephesians 1:7
• Sanctification (made holy, set apart for God’s purposes) – Acts 26:18
• Healing – Mark 5:34 and Mark 10:52
• Adoption as a child of God – Galatians 3:26 and 4:6
• Christ dwelling in our hearts – Ephesians 3:17
• Victory over the world – 1 John 5:4
• Ability to please God – Hebrews 11:6
• A shield to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one – Ephesians 6:16
• The Blessing of Abraham – Galatians 3:9
• Inheritance of God’s promises – Hebrews 6:12
• and more….

It is through faith that we have all of these things. In God’s great design He has made faith the key to access all that He has for us. Imagine a large storehouse up in heaven with your name on it. God has already placed everything you will ever need in this life in your storehouse. In your storehouse there might be healing, a new house, a better job, a spouse, salvation of your loved ones, enough money to pay off your debts and to meet your every need, a car, the wisdom you need, victory, blessings, and every other promise from God’s Word that you need. You have access to all of this because of Jesus and his finished work on the cross. So, through faith in Jesus, God has provided us with everything we need in this life.

But all of these things don’t just fall on us like apples off a tree. So, how do we use our faith to take what we need from our heavenly storehouse and bring it into our lives? The answer is simple: we act on our faith. James 2:17 says “faith without action is dead” and James 2:22 says “faith is complete in action.” Acting on our faith, is how we get what we need from our heavenly storehouse. Let’s look at salvation for example. Salvation doesn’t just fall on us. We have to take action first, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NLT). We act on our faith by confessing and believing and then salvation comes.

The woman with the issue of blood told of in the gospels is a great example of someone acting on their faith. Let’s look at Mark 9: 25-30 NET:

“Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.”

What a beautiful example of acting on faith. She must have heard about Jesus and all the healing miracles he had done. She had faith in his power to heal her. Her faith moved her into action: she came up with a plan and she went to where Jesus was, she lined her words up with her faith and “kept saying” that if she could just touch his garment she would be healed, she fought through the crowd, she touched his garment, and she was healed.

We need to act in the same way. Faith is the key to accessing all that God has for you. Remember, faith is hope that has moved into confident expectation. In faith, we should pray and ask for what we need. We should expect God to answer our prayers. We should line up our words with what we are believing for and expecting. Then we should plan for and wait confidently for the answer to our prayers.

 

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