Exercising Faith as a Child
By Elvira Bujanda
Do you remember when you were little how you would eagerly anticipate your birthday as it drew near?
What made you so eager? Was it your belief that loved ones and friends would bring you gifts and special surprises?
As children we never doubted that good things would come of our relationships with these people because we knew them and we knew they loved us.
God wants us to come to Him as His children, believing that He loves us and will give us every good thing. That is childlike faith based on our relationship with Him.
So what is faith? The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.”
That means you must take God at His word with no questions asked.
Believing God exists is only the beginning. He wants your faith to develop a more personal relationship with Him.
In Hebrews 11:6 it says: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
So faith is the confidence that God will fulfill His promises even though we can’t see how things can work out well. It still believes that “all things work together for good to those who love God; to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
God has given us minds to develop and use, that we would trust in faith even when there are so many mysteries to His ways.
Our faith is in the God who created an entire universe by His word of power!
Having true faith that Jesus Christ is God allows us to surrender our will to Him as Master. As it says in Galatians 3:26: “For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
It’s also a saving faith. The mind trusts in God and the heart responds to God.
John 20:31 says: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.
It’s an act of faith to surrender to God’s perfect will for your life, even though you may not know what that may be.
Paul says in Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Faith trusts God and believes without understanding everything. It accepts adversities as part of the will of God, and glorifies God in tribulations.
Romans 5:1-5 says: “Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance character; and character, hope, now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
But we are not born with this faith. It comes by hearing the Word of God, as it says in Romans 10:17: “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
This is why we are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature, that they may hear and believe.
We do know that faith is of great importance, because in Ephesians 6:16 it says: “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”
The shield of faith is a vital part of the Christian’s armor to equip us in our lives of spiritual warfare and conflict so that nothing can hurt us and we can overcome, as it says in Romans 8:38: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Without faith we cannot be saved, live victoriously over the world, please God, pray, or have peace and joy with God. We are justified by faith and not by works.
It’s in living by faith that we are made righteous, and that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, so we are able to receive the Holy Spirit and God’s promise of eternal life.
Jesus said: “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whoever shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,’ and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:22-23).
God says the Holy Spirit that dwells in us by faith is our down payment on His promise of what is to come. It’s up to us, then, by faith, to believe that God will keep His promises, and to remember that we never struggle alone.
His Spirit is with us and He will never leave us nor forsake us.
We are to run the race with endurance and strength in the power of the Holy Spirit, as it says in Hebrews 12:2: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:17).