Trusting God's Faith

Faith is a gift from God; the irrefutable evidence of the unseen and the manifestation of that which is hope alone. It is the undeniable proof in the heart of God's children that they live, move, and have His being. (Acts 17:26-28)
Faith is the activity of God by way of the Holy Spirit within His own.

In the following passage, the disciples are commanded by Jesus to obey a teaching that requires of them what they certainly do not possess.

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.

"The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' And the Lord said, 'If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you." (Luke 17:3-6)

Jesus corrects the apostles cry for increased faith by revealing to them that their problem is not a lack faith, but an issue of being able to trust what God has revealed to them through His Word. The ability to accept God's word comes by way of His imparted sanctification upon the people, in His time, in His way. It is not a gift we can readily display at our own discretion, nor of our own affections; not until God has replaced our heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

Trust, on the other hand, depends upon the mind's ability to accept that which lacks physical and rational evidence, having heard from God (faith) while battling the incessant desire to rationalize it according to the wisdom and forms of this world. It is trust that we exercise on a daily basis. Trust is of the mind, which without the renewing of, can not accept God's word nor know true faith.

Therefore Jesus states, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Mark 14:38) In other words, we call upon the Father that we may hear from the Holy Spirit and learn how to discern between what is good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

It is not our faith that we struggle with, it is our trust that falters. Faith never sways; and without intimate prayer, trust always will.

PJR

"The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful-

-for he cannot deny himself."

(2 Timothy 2:11-13)