"Keeping the Faith!" - 2

 "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." (Hebrews 10:38 KJV)

  "I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways." (PSALM 85:8 NLT) 

 Here is the thing that makes faith so important, whether you believe it or not: It is His power and might that we have faith in, not our own! Much like Jesus saying, "If we had the faith of a mustard seed," it is not our mustard seed of strength or determination; but putting our faith in God, just believing He is able to do anything, is enough to make that mustard seed grow into something bigger and stronger, so much so, that you will have rest for your soul. 

 This isn't really something we can on our own, as if we just snap our fingers and make ourselves have faith; because faith requires knowledge of God, and wisdom enough to believe He is capable of doing abundantly more than we could ever imagine. If we can just believe what the Bible says in the beginning, we can have enough faith in God to believe anything else is possible, just from the act of creation! 

 Imagine the struggle so many people have with how Jesus dying on the cross takes away all of our sins; it just doesn't make sense to those that can't believe it is true. And even those that have received it, once they draw back and return to their sins, they too begin to doubt and wonder if it is true. 

 Again, the Bible is God's written word, which He has given to us that we should know Him! It is not a book filled with stories and fables but is God's love letter to the world that He created; letting His creation know who He is and how much He loves us, so that by chance, we can love Him back! 

 I say, by chance, because it requires for us to change our minds and soften our hearts, which is not really something that we can do on our own, but something we must allow God to do, in us...

"One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority." But Jesus replied, "Only an evil and adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three day and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. "The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here - but you refuse to repent. The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here - but you refuse to listen. "When an evil sprit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation."" (Matthew 12:38-45 NLT)