My Daily Pause

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance – Gal 5:22-23

The underlying Greek word here is pistis defined as assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

When asked to describe faith or faithfulness, we often think:

• fidelity
• loyalty
• trustworthy
• steadfast
• dependable

These are some excellent words to describe what we see in faithful people, but they are not what makes them faithful. Faith is a belief  in something so strong that we will take an action based on it. For instance I believe my boss will write me a paycheck, therefore I go to work each day.

Hebrews 11 teaches us the essence of that kind of faith:

• Able offered his sacrifices the way God wanted them
• Enoch did things in a way that pleased God
• Noah built an ark with only a warning
• Abraham moved his family to an unfamiliar land
• An angel had to stop the knife in Abraham’s hand so he wouldn’t sacrifice his son
• Moses chose to be numbered among his people and not the Egyptians

…the list goes on. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without this kind of faith, we can’t please him.

Here are some ways we need to respond once we understand that God is who the Bible says he is:

• Obey his Gospel plan
• Live in a way that demonstrates your faith (James 2:14-26)
• Supplement it with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and with love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

There are those that tell you that God’s salvation is available through faith only. This concept is foreign to the Bible.  When the Bible tells you that faith saves you, it is talking about a faith so strong that you are willing to move and do something.  It means that when you have gotten into Christ, you are living and acting in a Christ-Like manner all the time. This kind of faith takes a lot of maintenance, so keep reading your Bible and it will grow! (Romans 10:17)

 Daily Bible reading for July 15

Ecclesiastes 9:1-10
Joshua 15
Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
Matthew 23