First of Four Things that Will Change Your Life…Faith
We are in a new year! There is just something exciting about a new year!
Maybe it is the anticipation of the unknown. Like a present, wrapped, waiting to be opened. It is full of surprise, of wonder, of thought.
What will this year bring?
Many times, the beginning of a new year brings about a desire for change…A hope of something better.
Often people make New Year’s Resolutions…This year I am going to… eat better, lose weight, exercise, work harder, get out of debt…
I am going to spend more time with my family, my children. I am going to be a better person.
These are all good things. We make resolutions to make ourselves better, and to make our relationships with others better.
Most of the time however, even though our intentions are good…we often fail. After starting off well, we don’t seem to finish what we started.
Yet, still there is something about the beginning of a new year that always brings hope of something different, of being able to start over.
How many things in our life would we change if we could start it all over?
Well, as much as we would like too we can’t change the past…but, we can change the outcome of our future.
I want to give you over the next few weeks…Four things that will change your life!
These four things have the power to change your entire life. Not just you personally but, that of your family, and those around you as well.
These four things can bring about anything you have ever dreamed of or hoped for, and yet may provide you with what you did not even know you were in need of.
These four things can change who you are.
It may sound like I am selling some old-fashioned tonic, or snake oil… some kind of bush medicine. But, no, that’s not it.
All four of these things are found in God’s Word.
So, if you want your life to be better, listen closely…and follow these things that God tells us in His Word.
If you are happy with who you are, and what you have become…well, you listen too.
God’s Word always has a way of helping even those that didn’t know they needed it.
The first of the four things that will change your life…Faith!
What is Faith?
-Definition of “faith”…
Heb 11:1 ¶ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Simply put, it is believing and trusting in something, or someone.
You put your faith in things everyday. When you go to turn on the light switch, you expect the light to come on.
(If it doesn’t something is wrong. The bulb is burned out, the fuse is bad, the light fixture is broke, or you didn’t pay your electric bill.)
When you turn on that switch, you have faith that it will come on…That it will work.
It is the same with your water. When you turn on the faucet…you expect water to come out.
Not only do you have faith that it will work, but you have faith that you will get what you expected to get.
The water faucet brings water. It doesn’t pour out gasoline, or diesel, or Coca-Cola. (Although that would be nice.)
Now, you believe that these things will work…even though you can’t see it, or understand it.
When you turn on the light switch, you can’t see the electricity go through the wires from the pole to the switch, to the light bulb. (If you can, I do not want you to do any wiring for me.)
I don’t understand how electricity works, how it flows through the wires. But, I know it does.
This is somewhat how faith is.
Faith is believing that God will do what He says He will do!
Gods Word…Believe it…Accept it…Expect it!
Why is faith so important?
Need for Faith…
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him:…”
There is no pleasing God without faith.
In this verse we are given two things that are required of our faith…
1. “…believe that he is…”
You have to believe that God is who He says He is. (It would be hard to have faith in God, if you do not believe in God.)
And, not just that there is a God…but, that you have a personal relationship with Him through His Son…that you have been saved.
Salvation is first. Without having been saved how can you say that you believe Him?
1Jo 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
2. “…he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
You have to believe that if you seek Him…if you grow in your relationship with Him, spend time with Him, learn of Him, talk to Him, obey Him…He will bless you.
(… “diligently seek him”…means to… to search out, crave, demand, seek after) -Strongs
God rewards those that pursue Him!
You can’t please God if you do not have faith in Him, and in His Son…but if you do possess faith and you hope for things He has told you in His Word, even if it is things which you can’t see yet…God will reward you!
Another thing about faith that we find in God’s Word is that…
A little Faith Can Do Great Things…
Lu 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Jesus on a different occasion told them…
Mt 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
A mustard seed is pretty small. (Smaller than a sesame seed.)
It is one of the smallest seeds known to man.
Maybe you have heard the expression that, “Sometimes big things come in small packages.” (Illustration Examples…It doesn’t take much dynamite to cause a great explosion…It doesn’t take much gold to be worth a fortune…)
It doesn’t take much to make big things happen.
When a mustard seed grows into a mustard plant, it can grow to an unbelievable size. There probably isn’t another plant quite like it.
Mustard trees can grow up to nine feet tall, and have a stem up to one inch in diameter. This is truly amazing when you consider the mustard seeds humble beginning.
And the Lord said that if you only have the faith the amount of a mustard seed, just that much…you can move a mountain, you can uproot a tree…
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t moved a mountain lately…I haven’t moved a tree lately…
Our problem is our lack of faith.
The Opposite of Faith is Unbelief…
Our problem so often is that we do not even have the faith of a mustard seed in believing that God can work, or will work. And, then we are surprised, or upset that He didn’t.
Why should He work? Why should our lives be changed?
You didn’t believe that He would!
What do you expect? He told you that you have to believe in Him, and believe that He will.
Oh, we know He is able. Yet, our problem many times is that we just don’t think He is willing. But, that is what is required of us for Him to work.
Mr 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Our biggest problem is lack of faith.
During Jesus’ public ministry on earth He was in His own city of Nazareth…He had already healed people…He had already performed miracles…yet, scripture tells us…
Mt 13:58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
God will not work where faith isn’t!
Faith in Accordance to His Will…
One other thing we should note about faith…faith that can change our lives is a faith in Him, that lines up with His will.
God does not adjust Himself to us, we must adjust ourselves to Him.
I can have faith that God is going to give me a million dollars, but if it is not His will, obviously He is not going to do it.
And, I should not pray, nor ask for what I know is not His will…or goes against His Word.
1Jo 5:14 ¶ And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
Don’t get upset with God when He doesn’t give you what you know is contrary to scriptures.
Conclusion…
-Faith is required to please God.
-The faith you possess must be faith in Him. (Not man, or self, or Mary, or statue that man tells you to believe in.)
-God does not require much faith for Him to work. Yet, God will reward those who seek His will for their lives.
Are you ready to change your life…then believe and expect that God can, and that God will, if you faithfully follow Him!
