Faith

This week I've been focusing my personal studies on the concept of faith. As I started thinking about how faith looks like in my life, I noticed I do place a lot of faith in my own works. So what does it mean to have unfailing faith in the perfect work of Jesus, and how do I live my life in this way. This morning I found this hymn 'O, for a Faith that will not shrink' by William Bathurst. Here are the lyrics:

O, for a faith that will not shrink,

Though pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe!

That will not murmur nor complain

Beneath the chastening rod,

But, in the hour of grief or pain,

Will lean upon its God.

A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without;

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt.

That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown

Nor heeds its scornful smile;

That seas of trouble cannot drown,

Nor Satan’s arts beguile.

A faith that keeps the narrow way

Till life’s last hour is fled,

And with a pure and heavenly ray

Lights up a dying bed.

Lord, give me such a faith as this,

And then, whate’er may come,

I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss

Of an eternal home.

Wow, these words really gave me some insight into my own life, Faith is living without the fear of earthly things. I personally know earthly fear, I worry about things like 'will I loose my job?', 'How are we going to get through the week with $20 bucks in the bank', 'What will people think?'. The second verse brought me even more conviction, Would God allow bad things to happen to his children to teach them? Of course, trials are a way for God to get our attention, to bring us in line with His will for our life. Faith requires me to take notice, take comfort, and understand that God will always provide a way. I need not look to myself when bad things happen, but cling to my Lord and Savior, who is my provision. When being disciplined I need to look to God for answers.

So I found some answers on faith:

1. Faith must be placed only on Christ alone. Faith in anything other than Him is vain and useless.
2. Faith is constant, and only builds with experience. Noah had faith, and it took him a long time to build the Ark. Maybe he questioned if it would ever rain, but over the long term he kept the faith, and he finished the Ark.
3. Faith must be complete, and each action of life must act out the drama which points to faith in God alone. Can I look past and see each action I take as an act of following Christ without faultier? And when I do see my action as faith in something else, can I correct it?
4. Faith in Christ, that my failures are covered by His perfect work on the Cross.
5. Faith in Christ, that when bad things happen He will be glorified by it's out come.
6. Faith in the fact that this world is nothing but a shadow land, and what will come is the perfected of what I see today.