Your Faith

“Daughter, your faith has made you well.”  Mark 5:34

What is faith? 
Well, I know that the dictionary doesn’t say this, but I will venture to say that faith is a verb.  It is not static.  It runs to and hears and knows God; declares & acts on His purposes and links our humanity with His endless possibilities. 

Faith is active trust.  It is an act of the will. Jesus loves faith!  In fact, He rejoiced over the faith that those who followed Him displayed. (see Luke 10:17-24) God loves faith and moves to action when He sees & hears it in action.

So much hinges on our faith. Sometimes I wonder if we’ve made it sound so mystical that it has lost its substance (Hebrews 11:1).  Scripture tells us that faith can be seen, that you can hear it and be moved by it.  Jesus often remarks that He was moved to act on someone’s behalf because of “their faith”.  My faith is not reliant on someone else' faith.  It may be encouraged & spurred on by someone else, but it will always be accountable to me.

Jesus was always mentoring, teaching and prodding His followers to learn.  They would ask Him to feed the crowd and He would ask them what they had to contribute (Mark 6:37).   He said that faith was like a mustard seed in Mark 4:30-32, that when it was planted it would grow into something others could benefit from.  So, was faith the seed or was faith in the knowing of what the seed could become?  The seed was just a seed but faith saw the potential of that tiny seed and planted it in the ground!

Faith is active trust.  It is not passive, but it does not need attention.  It is sure of what it hopes for and feeds on the very Word and presence of God, growing into maturity.

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