Knowing God through His Word — Part 14
Belief is the key to Jesus heart. If you want to know if Jesus is for real or if you don’t believe and want to, then you can honestly approach Him and ask for faith with words as simple as, “If you are real, Lord, show me. Help me to believe.”
If you kind-of sort-of believe, but are hindered by doubts, simply ask Him, “Lord, take my unbelief.”
If you want to know Him better and be more like Him, simply ask, “Lord, increase my faith.”
It’s as simple as all that, so if you don’t get an immediate answer, keep asking.
If you want to grow in faith, act on the faith you have— think on Jesus, talk with Him and get to know Him through the Scriptures. Here are a few Scriptures that build my faith and increase my desire for more faith.
Jesus is with us.
Behold I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28: 20b
Jesus does not change.
For I the LORD, do not change. Malachi. 3:6
Jesus is faithful.
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1: 9
Jesus gives us faith.
[Do not think of yourselves] more highly than [you] ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has given you. Romans 12: 3
Faith in Jesus anchors us.
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Psalm 125: 1
Faith in Jesus gives peace.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
Faith in Jesus protects us from deception and gives us direction.
He [a contemptible man] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will stand firm and take action. Daniel 11: 32b
Faith in Jesus is stronger than the world.
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith. 1 John 5: 4
Early in Jesus ministry, His family mocked Him and didn’t support His ministry. After Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus brother James was so thoroughly converted that he became the first believer to be martyred for his faith. He wrote,
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1: 5-8
Let us pray for faith, both for ourselves and for our loved ones. Paul shows us how in his letter to the Ephesians.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-18
Hold fast to the truth that
It is by grace that we are saved, through faith, and not by our own efforts or by our own works; it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2: 8-10
And that
He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
