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\u201c. . .Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. . .\u201d Hebrews 11:1.\u00a0 Living by faith is the opposite of living by sight.\u00a0 Walking by the world\u2019s wisdom involves basing our words actions and lives on information gathered by the physical senses. . . what we see, hear, touch and comprehend with our minds.\u00a0 In other words we believe only what we find physical evidence for and base our lives on such information.\u00a0 In contrast, living by faith is based on an inward sureness and certainty of things not due to physical evidence but our confidence in God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n
Life Application Bible comments that \u201cthe beginning point of faith is believing in God\u2019s character He\u00a0 is who He says, and the end point is believing in God\u2019s promises: He will do what He says. When we believe what God will fulfill His promises even when we don\u2019t see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true Faith\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, a great center of trade and commerce in his time.\u00a0 He was called to give up his country and livelihood and go to a land that God will shoe him.\u00a0 He had no idea of what the land would be like, he had never been there!\u00a0 But he trusted God and obeyed.\u00a0 Abraham\u2019s life was not stressless despite the call!\u00a0 Twenty five years of childlessness is enough to destroy the faith of many but Abraham persevered and in the end, he indeed is a Father of many nations!<\/p>\n
Like Abraham, God\u2019s call upon our lives may involve giving up on our secure lives, jobs, plans, etc., for what we may not have full details of.\u00a0 Are we willing to give up what we are used to, break away from the control\/strings of our families and secure terrains, to embrace what God calls us to, and this without physical evidence or details of what it involves?\u00a0 This is living by faith.<\/p>\n
Joseph had a dream early in his life, which he declared to his parents and brothers.\u00a0 Despite betrayal by his brothers and life as a slave in Egypt, Joseph maintained a close walk with God and refused to sin against Him.<\/p>\n
Joseph\u2019s faith in God shaped his words and actions despite the adverse and contradicting circumstances he found himself in.<\/p>\n
Eventually, he became Prime Minister of Egypt, where the Israelites settled and flourished. Before his death he made the sons of Israel swear an oath to carry his bones out of Egypt and back to Canaan.\u00a0 This was based on his faith in God\u2019s promise to his great grandfather Abraham hundreds of years earlier, Genesis 15:12-16.\u00a0 This looked very unlikely at that time since Israel was welcome in Egypt and in favor with King Pharaoh.\u00a0 But Joseph had faith in God\u2019s word and was not deceived by circumstances and made plans for his bones by faith!<\/p>\n
The Old Testament is full of stories of men and women who experienced great victories because of their exercise of faith in God. . . Joshua and Deborah. . . Daniel was saved from the mouth of lions. . . Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were delivered from the fiery furnace.\u00a0 In contrast, others were maltreated and tortured and many killed and no miraculous deliverances occurred.\u00a0 John the Baptist was beheaded just to please a young girl who impressed a king with her dance.\u00a0 The challenges we face differ as does God\u2019s plans and purposes for our lives.\u00a0 What matters is for us to ensure that whatever we face, our thoughts, words and actions spring from our inward faith in God\u2019s word.\u00a0 We can leave the rest to His sovereignty.<\/p>\n
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Faith comes by \u201chearing\u201d the word of God.\u00a0 This implies the preaching and teaching of the word of God, rather than motivation, thoughts and philosophies of men.\u00a0 To \u201chear the word of God goes beyond mere mental comprehension of what it says.\u00a0 We hear the word when the Holy Spirit reveals the reality, the meaning, the implication and its relevance to our situation, to our spirit man.\u00a0 It is the inward knowledge that gives us a certainty, and makes us sure of the reliability of God\u2019s word and moves us to be willing to obey or act on it.\u00a0 Growing in faith comes from a daily study of God\u2019s word with a sincere hunger and thirst for the revelation of His word and willingness to obey.\u00a0 As we study the word, God reveals Himself and His plans for specific areas of our lives to us.\u00a0 As we grow in our understanding and faith in God\u2019s character and ways, we are more willing to base our hopes, expectations, plans and lives on His revealed word.\u00a0 This is living by faith in contrast to acting based on our circumstances.<\/p>\n
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For some Christians, their actions are based on circumstances, tradition, the expectations of those around them and the desire to conform to what others are doing and avoid friction.<\/p>\n
God designed that the life of the righteous should spring from their faith in Him.\u00a0 He expects that our desires, expectations for the future, plans and actions should be based on God\u2019s word.\u00a0 Not the phrase \u201chis faith\u201d.\u00a0 There is a limit to how much we can rely on the faith of others in the spiritual life.\u00a0 The individual\u2019s experience of God, His power, provision, guidance, protection is a function of the \u201cmeasure of faith\u201d the righteous exercises in God\u2019s word.\u00a0 You cannot experience God beyond the areas you exercise faith in Him.<\/p>\n
Many of us live by faith in ourselves, our families, our position or status, our salaries or earnings and not in what is written in God\u2019s word concerning us.\u00a0 For example God\u2019s word says He will supply our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.\u00a0 Do you find it easy believing God to supply a need that is above your income?\u00a0 Can your faith carry that?\u00a0 We measure ourselves by the world\u2019s standards and forget our true identity which is that we are God\u2019s children.\u00a0 The Father expects us to base all our actions on our faith in Him.\u00a0 This alone pleases Him.<\/p>\n
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God is only pleased when we consciously live by faith in every area of life.\u00a0 A life of faith does not come by chance.\u00a0 \u00a0It springs from a close walk with God including continual revelation of God\u2019s word.\u00a0 Of course, God will not reveal His word to just anybody.\u00a0 We must be devoted to Him and sincerely hunger for His word realizing that it is the only way we can become what He designed us to be.\u00a0 Then we must act on the word, obey it, and base our plans and actions on it.\u00a0 That way we will please God and receive His commendation.<\/p>\n
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Hebrews 2:4b \u2013 \u201cthe righteous shall live by his faith\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Living the Life of Faith Central Thought: The believer is expected to live a life of faith. Text: Hebrews 2:4, 11:1-6; Romans 10:17 \u201c. . .Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. . .\u201d Hebrews 11:1.\u00a0 Living by faith is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}