God Is The Source Of Our Faith

Last week, we defined faith as deeply held belief, a deep conviction that something is true. We discovered biblical faith is confident expectation. But the question remains, “faith in what?” It’s never a matter of how much faith we have but rather where our faith is placed. We exercise faith every time we sit in a chair, get behind the wheel of a car, get on a plane, or do any of a thousand other things. The issue for many people is their faith is in the wrong place. 

In John 6, John records an account of Jesus feeding a crowd of 5,000 plus with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Afterward, Jesus went into the hills be alone and His disciples sailed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Later, He joined them, walking on the water to their boats. The following day, the crowd who had been miraculously fed by Him went looking for Him. When they found Him in Capernaum, He essentially scolded them, saying they weren’t really looking for Him but for more bread and fish. When the people inquire further, Jesus says, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29 NLT).

 As much as we love God’s blessings, we should not put our faith in them because they can go away. We need to put our faith and trust in Christ. He must be the object of our faith - not His blessings or provisions. Like the crowd in John 6, we shouldn’t believe in the bread and fish, but in the God of the miracles. Genuine biblical faith should be founded in God, who He is and what He says! The source of our faith – God – remains the same, though the resources He provides may change.  

The challenge here is the fight between faith and fear. Our enemy, the devil, operates with fear. God operates through faith. Faith versus fear is the only real fight in our lives. The enemy will use the trials of our lives to cause us to lose hope, our faith, and stop believing God. May we “Fight the good fight for the true faith” (1 Timothy 6:12 NLT) with our focus firmly on God the source of our faith.