The Questions Series Faith Week Two

Faith VS Doubt... 
How do you strengthen your faith?… 

Lets face it faith can be a simple thing or it can be a really hard thing to grasp and hang on to especially when life is hard.  We all have times when we are on top of the world with our faith, during those times Jesus is the answer for everything!  We are moving mountains left and right and we can’t be shaken in our faith.  But honestly these are usually just moments that come and go like a passing storm moving over the mountains.   The other part of life is spent in the moments between and in these in between parts of life our faith is in us but it is sleeping. We don’t call on Jesus for everything, we might goes days without evening calling out to Him.  This is the battle of faith.  Things come into our lives and they cause us to have a hard time living out and believing our faith.  I get this way sometimes when the day has been long, and it seems like no one comes to me with any good news.  Every where I go it seems like people need prayer and encouragement.  Then I arrive at home ready to plop on the couch after putting the kids to bed, and another text comes in someone in need of prayer.  My thoughts become selfish, thinking really, I just want to watch TV and forget that the world is so broken.  At that moment my faith is challenged and it is filled with doubt.  Then as I get to my knees (it might be an hour or two latter) but when I hit my knees my faith becomes alive and I pray, and pray…  As I pray I am focused on this.  Don’t miss this because this is the battle of faith.  Paul wrote this one liner and it is so powerful.  In Philippians 4:13 Paul encourages us with this. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” As I process this verse I realize that I do everything through Him, and in that I receive strength.  

When has your faith been shaken and weak, what were you facing?  What thing slammed into your life and crushed your spirit?  Chances are at that moment you are not doing things through His strength.  You are thinking that you and you alone have to face the problem.  When that happens doubt creeps into your faith and you will lose.  What we have to understand is this our faith is His faith and His faith is perfect and strong.  We have to live out of His strength not our own.  We have to run the race of faith with His strength through Him.  Our faith leads us to Him, or dependence is Him and He will never fail us.  Doubt leaves and we live our life in and our of our faith… and that is awesome! 

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