"Part Two: What Does It Mean To Live By Faith."

Learning to live by faith is largely a matter of knowing and relating to God! As a Christ follower, you have entered into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. John tells us, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Paul tells us, "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). John says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God" ( 1 John 3:1). In part one, I mentioned that faith has its synonyms called trust and believe. In order for biblical faith to be effective, it must have an object! In other words, biblical faith is object centered, not self-centered. It's our knowledge of and belief and trust in the object of faith that makes it effective. The object of biblical faith is God and Him ALONE! True faith ALWAYS involves surrender to the will of God who is the object of our faith. Conscious submission to the will of God is at the core of the trust and belief exercised by those who diligently seek Him! In talking about relationships, the principle is this: Trust is absolutely essential for intimate personal relationships! When we don't trust someone, we won't allow ourselves to get close to that person. We will not share personal information for fear that the person will use it in ways that bring harm to us. We won't believe the personal information that the person shares with us, because we think, "I don't trust this person!" Here is another principle for intimate relationships: Truth is the underlying support for trust! If a person lies to us or brings deception to us, we will not trust what that person says or does. If we sense that the person is hypocritical, conveying that he or she is something that they're really not, we will keep our distance from him or her. Why? A lack of truth wears away at trust and causes distance in relationships. You're probably thinking, "how does knowing this relate to living by faith?" These principles of relationships also apply to our relationship with God! When we don't trust God, we won't allow ourselves to get close to Him. If we don't understand what God says, we can't trust Him and thus will remain distant from Him. We can't grow in our relationship with God without trusting Him, which speaks to our knowledge of Him! Your move. Be encouraged!