What is Faith

Hello Everyone,

    Today I want to talk about how to define faith.  Sometimes Christians say that they are people of faith.  What they typically mean is that they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  That's a great place to start but it's really only a start.  Now when I talk with the Lord about words, I want a working definition of the word because I realized that there are many words that Christians use and say with no true understanding of what the word actually means.  I think "faith" can be one of those.

    I have heard people say, and I have been one of them, that they have faith but what do they really mean?

   

    Hear is the definition of faith the Lord gave me.  Faith is believing that God will do what He said He would do.  God does this every time we let him.  Now many times people pray for something but they pray in hope not in faith.  Those are two different things and prayers in hope, not faith, won't work.  In fact in Mark 6:58 and Matthew 13:58 it says that Jesus could do no mighty works because of their unbelief (lack of faith).

    So let me show you the difference.  If I go ask a friend of mine to borrow his car, when I ask (or pray) I am doing it in hope.  I don't know what he will say but I sure hope he let's me borrow his car.  

    So think about this situation.  I want to borrow a friend's car so I call him on Saturday and ask him if I can use the car on Sunday.  He says, "Sure.  Come get the keys from me on Sunday morning and you can borrow the car."  So when Sunday morning comes, I go to him and ask for the keys.  But when I ask, because he is a man of his word, I know he will give me the keys to the car because he told me that I could borrow it on Saturday.  

    Do you see the difference between faith and hope?

    Well you might ask what this has to do with God and the Bible.  It's exactly the same thing.  I have heard many people ask for prayer about something without knowing what God's Word says about their prayer request.  They are asking in hope, not faith, because they don't know what God said He would do.  But on the other hand, when someone goes to God and knows what He already said in His word about a situation, then they can ask in Faith fully expecting God to do what He said He would.

    So for example if you need a financial miracle, you can go before the Lord and say, "Lord You said in Philippians 4:19 that You would supply all my needs according to Your riches in Christ Jesus.  Now you know I need the electric bill paid and I am asking You now to pay the electric bill."  When you do, if you believe that He will, then thank Him for paying it.  

    In the case of me borrowing a car from my friend, when I called on Saturday, I would tell him thank you when I got off the phone before I ever saw the keys.  We should do the same with God because it's good to be thankful but also because we believe He will do what He said!

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Holding Grudges

Hi Everyone,

 

Someone who follows me on Facebook, NP, asked me to write about holding grudges so here's my take.

 

We've all been there.  There's that one person who has really done something wrong to us and we want to get back at them so bad we can taste it.  We dream of all the witty things we would say or how we would act given the chance and we think about how good it would feel to finally let that person have it.  I mean we deserve to get even with someone if they have done something wrong to us.  If you are a Christian you have to turn the other cheek once but after that you are out of cheeks and it's time for payback.  Now many times we don't pay the other person back we just think about it.

 

But even when we do pay them back, we often feel worse for what we did to them than we did before we did it.  One time I was in a movie theater with my brother and his wife.  We were in line to get popcorn and all the things you need to see a movie and there was this guy who said that my sister-in-law didn't pay for her hot dog when I knew she did.  I don't remember how it started but he said something that was kind of insulting and I didn't wait to hold a grudge, I let him have it right there.  I said some really mean stuff that cut him down to size.  Then we went into the movie theater and I felt so terribly awful for saying the things I said.  See my mom always told me that two wrongs don't make a right.  So what did I do?  I went back and found the kid and apologized profusely for my words.

 

So now let's deal with what happens when we hold grudges?  First of all, the real person it hurts is us.  Grudges don't normally hurt the other person because they normally don't even know about them.  But what they do to our insides is pretty bad.  They make us feel all sorts of negative emotions that really can do us harm.  If we are not careful, we can spend a lot of time mediating on all the negative stuff which is really bad for us.  

 

But also did you know that when we hold things against other people that it will hinder our prayers to God.  The bible tells us to forgive others so God can forgive us.  That's pretty heavy stuff.  So I can hear some of you saying, "That all sounds good but I've tried everything and I just can't let go of this grudge."  Well that's not true.  Did you know that there is a lot of power in the words we say.  When we go around saying things like I can't let go, we only make it harder to actually let go.

 

The answer to this lies in that hole under our mouth.  If you want to let go of a grudge, make a conscious faith decision to let go.  Then say out of your mouth, "I let go of that grudge that I have against so and so."  At that point, it's a done deal.  So what do you do three minutes later when that negative feeling starts coming up?  You say to it, "Nope I have already let go of the grudge and forgiven that person."  If you keep saying that, eventually it will become a reality in your life and you can finally be free of the grudge.  Remember, if you are a Christian, you got saved by faith.  You can let go of a grudge by faith as well.  When you do, God will help you let go.

 

That's another Opinion of the Minion