What is FAITH?

by Joni Lund on 10/26/14

1. A conviction of reality you can not see or feel.

2.  Putting trust in the One who has shown Himself in the Person of Christ.  Not a leap in the dark, mystical wxperiene , or an indefinable encounter with someone.

Hebrews 12:2  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, woho for the joy set before him endured the crusifiction on the cross, bareing the shame/sin/strips, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3.  Faith is that which I hold God's promises and apply them to my life and problems.

4.  Remembering I am invaluable to God, when I feel like a failure.

5.  Allowing God to straighten the record when false things have been said about me.

"Be on your guard, stand firm in faith; be men of courage; be stong.  1 Corinthians 16:13

6.  Doing the right thing regardless of the consequences, knowing God will turn the end to his will and purposes.

7.  Having the confidence God will provide when money is running out, and not rolling in.

8.  Remembering the in the kingdom of God everything is set on a promise, (a surity) not on feelings (which change frequently).

9.  Rejecting the feelings of anxiety when things seem out of control.  (God's in confrol of the big picture, not us.)

10.  Refusing the thinking that God loves and cherishes the popular, attractive, talened, more than He loves and cherishes plain sinful me. ( For it is written, that non shall perish. And the hairs of our head are numbered and God cherishes us more then the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field.)

11.  Remembering I am God's priceless treasure when I feel utterly worthless.  God's says we are priceless pearls.

12.  Realizing it is a glory to God to see us through an hard time, therefore a miracle; not the power of man, God's promise.  Not my goodness, ability or my will.  But God's.

"We live by faith, not by sight.  2 Corinthians 5:7

13.  Expecting God to accomplish miracles throught me, with my loaves and fishes.  Charity, compassion.

14.  Dependence on God to work miracles in my situation, state of mind.

15.  Thanking God for the specific thing that upsets me.

16.  Committing loved one's problems/needs to God to solve.

17.  Recognizing that God is the LORD of Past, Present, & Future; when my idea of timeing doesn't agree with His plan.

18.  The assurance that God is perfecting His design for me, when I wait, when life seems to be in a current.

19.  Confidence in god's faithfulness to me, in an uncertain world, and time, on an uncharted course, towards an unknown future.

"For wer are God's worksmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

20.  Reliance on the certainty that God has a pattern for my life when evertything seems meaningless, slow, or no.

21.Resting in the fact that God has a plan, when leaving me in a holding pattern, when I feel useless to Him and a burden to others.

22.  Expecting a sea of golden grain from the bleak, barren, endless fields, watered only by my tears, where I walk seemingly alone.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance." (and faith, gratitude, wisdom.)

James 1: 2-3

23.  Claiming God's strength to accept and endure weariness, pain, decline with out complaining.

24.  Depending on the knowledge God is love, not on my abiltiy to figure out WHY, in the admist of smashed hopes, reversal, tragedy.

25.  Confidence that God is acting for my highest good when He answers "No" "wait", "maybe later", to my prayers.

26.  Thanking God when I have shattered Hopes, dreams, and plans, that He has a better plan,

27.  Rejoicing in the eterneal glory accumulating from my temporary troubles when my usefulness or health or loved one is gone and I feel "not needed/loved". 

28.  Refusing to worry when I haven't a clue as to what God would have me do next with my life.

29.  Appreciating that my capacity to feel, communicate, think,  achieve, choose, create, and commune with God is limited; becoming more like him by the Holy Spirit is by grace, and God's love, my willingness to recieve.

30.  Acknowledging God is the giver of abilities, success, finances, growth, failures, when I have success.

31.  Thanking God for his gifts of emotional health, not holding onto the selfpride that I can cope with life because I have it all together.

"These come so that your faith, may be proved geniune and may result in praises, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  1 Peter 1:7

God will prove geniune by testing your resolve, actions, desicions in a crisis or fortune time.

32.  Standing on the fact God has make me whole and perfect for His purposes in the universe when I feel everything about me is one big mistake.

33.  Developed through hardship disappointment, disllusionment, conflict, frustration, failure, loss -- not through religious cermony or props.

And now these three remain:  faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

1 corinthians 13:13

34.  Fantasy like, unless it is made real in the way I interact with others.

35.  Cooperating with God in changing me, rather than taking refuge in regiliously berating myself.

36.  Not related to my believing hard enough, nor my emotional exhilaration, or flawness, but rests on what God guarantees in His word.

Faith comes hearing the word of God, and the message is heard through the teachings of Christ.

37.  Not faith in faith itself, but faith in the assurances of God found in the Facts of Scripture, Fact Christ died for us, and fact of Christ's resurraction.

Romans 8:32  "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also, along with Christ, graciously give us all things." 

38.  Not an idea that God is somehow trustworthy, but confidence in Him based on His proof of utter trustworthiness in dying for me and his rescriction.

39.  Not a vague hope, of a happy everafter, but an assurance iof heaven based on my trust in Christ's death as payment for my sins.

40.  Refusing to feel guilty over PAST confessed sins, when God, the Judge, has sovereignly declared me "Pardoned.".

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to five you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

41.  Ceasing to worry, leaving the FUTURE to God whom controls the future.

42.  Realizing God is the Gov of NOW, carrying on His purposes in every tedious, dull, stupid, boring, empty minute of our lives.

43.  Remembering I stand blameless before God whre I see nothing but my own meaness, pettiness, selfishness.

44.  Resting in the fact that I am not on brobation with God to recieve . . . .

45.  Accepting the ordinary as God's best for me when I want to be more special.

46.  Trusting God to satisfy when I am weaning myself from unhealthy but enjoyable pacifiers: workaholism, perfectionism, fantasy life, overly dependancy on relationships.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrightness."

47.  Remembering the fact that though I feel self-condemned, over confessed sin, GOD NOW HAS NOTHING AGAINST ME.

48.  Accepting the truth that in spite of the wreckage I've caused and grieve over, God, who has wiped the slate clean, delights in me.

49.  giving up that image of perfection I struggle for, and accepting it is done by God's gift of GRACE instead.

50.  seeing that though I may always live with scars from healed wounds of the past, God has incorporated them into His perfect plan for my life.

51.  Realizing that I a useful to God not IN SPITE of my sins but because of the experience and healing through them.

52.  Trusting God's final outcomes whean all I hoped of for my loved ones is shattered.

53.  Having confidence that God will take the bad choices others have made that affect me and use them for my ultimate good.

Faith is the substance of what we hoped for and certain of what isn't seen.  Hebrews 11:1

54.  Resting in the fact that life is not fair, the Righteous Judge say He will settle all debts fairly in heaven.

55.  Clinging to Christ for grace to resist when I am tempted, knowing, He has endured the same, has tender compassion on my weaknesses, and will help me hold strong.

56.  Knowing that it is not what I am doing but what He is doing in me which really matters.

57.  Ceasing from forever trying to make myself good enough; letting God provide, and allowing Jesus to be my Savior.

58.  Realizing that feeling totally inadequate, weak, needy, empty, is not the worst that can happen to me but the best.  the Kindgom belongs to the poor in spirit.

"By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.  He who had recieved the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, . . . . Abraham believed God could raise the dead, and by obedience he did recieve Isaac back from death.  Hebrews 11: 17, 19

59.  Letting go of that which God is requesting of you.

60.  Believing He, the miracle worker, can turn my stone-cold indifference into a fire of love toward certain "unlovables".

61.  Accepting the fact that the way to Him is through His me of all sense of my goodness, and leaving me with His alone.

62.  Not chasing after worldly caouses and trying to turn thistles into flowers, but daily fixing my heart and mind on Christ.

63.  And the heavenly pastures he has openned for me to enjoy with the river of His love that flows down to me.

"You have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  Colossians 3:1,2

64.  Remembering god loves me as tenderly and fervently when I fail as when I suceed.

65.  Realizing God knows all I ever have done, will do, or think, and what I ever will do' yet He chose ME out of his love & mercy for me.

66. Marveling in the fact that nothing less than the Shekhnah glory of God's presence dwells in me, HIS temple. 

"Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe  that he exists and rewards those earnestly seek him.  Hebrews 11:6

67.  Remember I grow by trusting not trying.

68.  Not faith in my "devotions"  or "spiritual disciplines" but in God.

69.  remembering that through my way is the path is dark as night, but GOD can see and guides me.

You shall have no other Gods before me.  Exodus 20:3

70.  Moving from worshipping my own self, to worshipping God.

71.  Accepting God's gifts of unchanging love without trying to make myself worthy.

72.  Stop expecting anything from myself, but expecting everything from God.  Not trusting in my religious preformance.  But Christ's performance in me.

73.  Accepting the fact that God controls my spiritual growth when above all else I want to be in charge of that area.  I must be that dependent.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved gereration, in which you shine ike stars in the universe . . .

74.  Waiting patiently for God to make me more Christ-like through people and circumstances when I want Him to geive me a fast painless fix.

75.  Believing in the midst of suffering and need that God will be enough and He will enable me to come through.

76.  Remembering that the "saint" who drives me crazy is indwelt by God and is precious to Him.

77.  The only things that counts is faith expressing itself through love."  Galatians 5:68

78.  Understanding my experiences with God won't cause any spiritual growth if I haven't worked out all the fractions in daily relatinships.

79.  Presenting my raw neediness to God in utter dependence on Him to produce in me His life of purity, patience, perseverance, humility, and love.

80.  My basic view of myself is soiled, dirty, defiled, but acceoting God's work through me makes me clean.

81.  When I feel like a dull leaden weight, remember I carry God's awesome presence into my day.

 82.  Believing that persevering many years of seemingly unanswered prayer is not an excersise in futility, but means by which God is accomplishing His great feet in His time for His purposes.

83.  Keeping on keeping on when I am dog tired, discourged, disillusioned, deserted, dusty, empty on His strength alone.

84.  Accepting the fact God knows better than I do what is best for me.

85.  Depend on God's enablement to live well in a fallen world rather than insisting He change it.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving present your requests to God.

86.  In prayer daily remember this it the thrill of our times, the greastest gather of people into the Kingdom of god the world has ever seen.

87.  Living the the unexplained.

88.  Hanging on to God, his Word, His promises, while confronting in Love, at the risk of being rejected.

89.  trusting I will become more loving and patient but thrusting in His life in me to produce those qualities verses trusting I will become more so by my own hard works.

90.  Realize God wants us to let Him love us.

91.  Knowing that in spiritual warfare we are on the Victor;s side.

92.  Realizing I the lost sheep is the treasure Christ sought and found, and that I am His joy.

93.  Knowing my sins were taken away from me by the payment of Christ's blood never to be seen again.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.  But Christ live in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  Galatians 2:20

94.  When I weep and am in sorrow; Him wees and sorrows with me.

95.  Gloryingin the fact that I am clean and pure, because His is pure and we two are one.

96.  Turning to God in my pain, not using people, things, activities to deaden it. 

97.  When the sun has eclisped, praising God throught my tears.

"on that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in You."  John 14:20

98.  Delighting in the hat through I am a broken scarred vessel, I am filled by God's presence by His hand with Christ, His treasure.

99.  Walking before God, not before my friends.

100.  When I feel inwardly cold, howllow lifefless, deserted, and longing for reassuring feeling, that God is doing his work in me.

101.  Letting go that another should change and looking to God for how I should change.

102.  Realizing I am powerless to accomplish anything of value, with out God's limitless strength.

103.  Helping other succed where I have failed by drawing on Gods' Grace.

104.  Giving God the freedom to have control over my life vs the temptation to do it with my own hands.

"Then we will no longer be infants,tossed back and forth by the waves , and blown here and threr by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ." Ephesians 4: 14-15

105.  Speaking the truth in love even at the cost of position or relationship.

106.  Taking my eyes off my good self, my bad self, or my wounded self, and keeping them on Himself. 

107.  the well being of a newborn.

108.  Remembering I am precious in His sight His beloved.

109.  Living with my lamp ready in anticipation of the Groom's foreth coming for our destination in heaven.

110.  Remembering that nothing can change my greatest blessing, His presence with me, even in the middle of great heartache.

111. Remembering that Christ is my righteousness.

112. Accepting God's greatest gift,  the experience of His love.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."  2 Timothy 4:7

113.  Having Faith is the way to please God.

114. Te conviction of Faith is, the promise keeper keeps His promises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Faith is resting in God's love, God's presence, and God's provision."  (with out worrying.)