Sermon Title: The FIVE building blocks of Faith
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!” (X3)
“And I’m so happy; so very happy! I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!” (X2)
“I’ve got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart!” (X3)
“I’ve got the wonderful love of my blessed redeemer way down in the depths of my heart!” (X3)
Chorus: “And I’m so happy; so very happy! I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!” (X2)
And so goes this wonderful children’s Praise Song.
When everything in life seems fine, it is easy, and even natural, to sing a song like that with confidence, certainty and joy.
But when challenges, sicknesses or the trials of life looms; this song would be furthest from our minds.
However if you have the presence of mind and resolve of heart to praise the Lord in the midst of the storm, it is then, and only then, that you are truly exerting your faith in Christ.
Do you truly understand what faith is?
Do you know how to nurture your faith in Christ?
Here are five essential building blocks of faith that will deepen your understanding of what faith truly entails.
Building Block #1:
Faith is really only required when we are in trouble; it is a spiritual muscle that must be exerted in order for it to get strong.
Faith is always exerted, tested, and tempered, when in adversity.
It cannot be ‘exercised’ on demand.
In adversity when faith is required, you either have it or you don't.
When you find yourself lacking faith, no amount of ‘exercising faith' will make you faithful to the Lord, and no amount of effort to ‘believe' will make you trust God more.
Faith cannot be simply exercised, it must be exerted.
In keeping the faith, the Apostle Paul speaks to the extreme discipline and exertion required of our faith which corresponds with a fight and a race.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)
In fact, our faith in God – manifested in our ability to utterly trust Him and to enjoy peace, joy and hope in spite of our tribulations – is the victory that overcomes the world.
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.” (1 John 5:4)
Strength comes only when we strain under stress.
No stress, no strain. No strain, No strength.
Only in the stress of adversity, do we exert and strain our faith muscles.
In peace and quiet, we do not need to exert faith; we exert faith and grow stronger, in order to find peace and quiet from Christ.
Building Block #2:
Faith is not about faith in a process; but faith in the Person of Jesus Christ.
The substance of faith is not based on a process of going through the troubles, but the person of Jesus Christ – our Saviour, our Deliverer – who holds our hand through the times of trouble.
Our Lord Jesus said in John 16:33:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We are to be joyful and peaceful; taking the troubles in our hearts and giving them to Jesus.
We are to trust Him; obey, follow and believe in Him.
He has overcome the world; and if we were to remain in Him – so shall we.
Building Block #3:
When we think about God as Deliverer - we must understand that He delivers us in trouble, NOT from trouble.
In the knowledge that life will consistently be fraught with troubles, David sang this song in Psalm 18 “when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”
“He said:
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
… … … …
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”
A very common misconception of the Christian life is that God delivers us from trouble.
As our Deliverer, God delivers us through our times of trouble so that we may know – as a matter of fact – that He is our God, in whom we can trust.
In acknowledging the nature of God as divine Deliverer through the inexorable troubles of life, Moses wrote in Psalm 91:
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
Indeed, rest in the Lord is only truly rest - when we are willing to trust Him to save you from the never-ending snares and pestilences of this life.
Building Block #4:
God is our Deliverer; NOT our Preventer.
The Name of Jesus means “God Saves”.
For indeed, God is our Salvation and our Deliverer.
We declare all the time that God is our Deliverer; but really in our minds, we prefer to believe and understand that God is our Preventor.
This is a misconception with serious ramifications for the Christian; resulting in unnecessary doubts, disillusionment and distress
We like to think of God as our Problem Solver – as one who prevents us from the tribulations that follow a problem; or worse, we think of God as our Problem Stopper – stopping problems to even happen in the first place.
We badly want God to be our Preventor; to prevent bad things from happening in our lives; that no trials nor tribulations would actually happen to us.
However, if we think carefully about it; without trials, tribulations or adversity, we absolutely have no need to exert our faith in Christ; and thus, without adversity, without strain, our faith muscles can never be strengthen, but in fact, weakened instead from lack of use.
Could God prevent bad things from happening to us?
Absolutely.
In fact, to an extent, He does.
You know the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
In the same way, you wouldn’t know what God prevented because He had already shielded you from it.
This is why all of our troubles in life are actually events that we need God to deliver us through.
He is our Shield that extinguished the flaming arrows of the evil one; and prevented us from experiencing the full effects of such a fiery death.
But the flaming arrows will continue to come.
And that is why we must continue to exert faith – that God will always deliver us.
Every time we exert and strain our faith muscles, we grow spiritually; and we grow stronger in our faith; and in our relationship with Christ.
When we praise God and pray to Him in our problems and through the tears; we experience the blessed strain of our faith growing.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:10-11:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
Romans 5:3-5
… … we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
When we exert our faith, we begin to know our Lord; we begin to learn what it means to persevere in the Lord.
Our character becomes tempered in preparation for the eternal Kingdom of God; and our hope in God and His Kingdom becomes certain, and more resolute.
God is NOT our Preventor; He is our Deliverer.
The notion that God is our Preventer robs us of attaining the kind of faith and strength required to truly be His Children.
As His Children, in spite of the tribulations of life, we will remain joyous, peaceful and missional – ever ready to be Christ’s witness - because we remain divinely hopeful that in the end “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)
I think we all prefer the notion of God as Preventer; but He will not allow Himself to be known to us as our Preventer; because He refuses to rob us of the divine opportunities to grow in the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ; to strain and build our faith muscles; and to be victorious in overcoming the world – just as He did.
Our Lord Jesus declares in Revelation 21:7:
“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
Do not get the order wrong.
The Lord does not give us victory in order to attain our divine and eternal destiny as people of His Kingdom; He rewards us with the Kingdom when we are victorious.
And utter faith in Christ guarantees our victory!
Remember 1 John 5:4?
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.” (1 John 5:4)
Faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world.
Hold on to Jesus all the days of your lives.
God does not prevent the troubles in our lives; He delivers us in the troubles of our lives.
As disciples of Christ, it is a very important distinction to make.
When you are easily distressed and shaken, constantly doubting God, or constantly blaming yourself, or finding someone to blame, it is because you have accepted the notion that God should have prevented bad things from happening to you.
It is a wrong understanding of the reality of our broken world; our sinful state; and it is certainly a wrong understanding of God.
But when we embrace the reality that our lives will be fraught with troubles; and also the reality that in spite of the troubles, God is always with us to deliver us through our troubles; we save ourselves from the unnecessary turmoil of asking questions like…
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?”
“Why me? Why do bad things always happen to me?”
Well… our Lord Jesus has already prepared us: “in this world you will have troubles. But take heart! I have overcome the world! And if you come to me, you will be victorious in spite of the troubles!” (John 16:33)
When you get thrown into the furnace, God is right here with you!
As His child, you and I can never stray away from God’s Will; for “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3 – and needless to say, the key premise here is that God is our Shepherd; and we are His sheep.)
And when you do come to Christ your Saviour and Deliverer, you receive a joy and peace that the world cannot take away from you; and you receive the blessed hope that in the end, your eternal destiny is found in the Kingdom of God.
You belong to God!
God is your Deliverer, never your Preventor.
Building Block #5:
God does not deliver us from disasters; He has delivered us from death – when we believed – and today, He delivers us from doubts.
We must understand that the process and workings of our Salvation and inclusion into His eternal Kingdom has already been established and fulfilled through Christ’s finished work of atonement for us – on the Cross.
It is a done deal.
For those who believe in the Salvific Love of God through Christ and live as His Holy Witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit, our names are written in the book of life.
Our struggles today are not against flesh and blood; but against the powers of darkness that attempts to enflame and attack us with schemes of doubt, and despair.
I’m not trying to make it sound simple; it is simple.
Faith is simple.
You either believe in Jesus; or you do not.
There is no middle road.
Faith is about the focus.
When we focus on the disasters , we become inward looking, earthbound, and are limited to worldly outcomes and solutions.
When we become bound to the flesh and blood, we simply will have no ability to see God at work
When we focus on our Deliverer, we open our lives to His Glorious, and Supernatural Purposes of inbreaking His Kingdom.
How do we focus on Christ our Deliverer? How do we stop doubting?
Simply believe!
Simply believe because the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing! (Psalm 23)
Simply believe in Christ, and you “will not perish, but have eternal life!” (John 3:16)
The Apostle Paul provides us more details as to the nuances of believing in Romans 10:9-10:
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
In Christ, you are already saved.
Have faith! Believe!
Five building blocks of faith.
Be familiar with them; daily exert your faith in Christ even in the smallest of your troubles.
Begin building your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ today.
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Power to live in supernatural faith daily; that I may constantly have the presence of mind and the resolve of heart to praise the Lord in the midst of the storm – for it is then, and only then, that I am truly exerting my faith in Christ.
Discipline me, O Lord, to exert faith to fight the good fight and finish the race!
(Ref: 2 Timothy 4:7)
Grant me the desire to strain towards You; to attain the strength of faith necessary to overcome every stress from the troubles of this world.
Help me to trust utterly in You; to enjoy peace, joy and hope in spite of my tribulations; in the knowledge that this faith is the victory that overcomes the world. (Ref: 1 John 5:4)
Make me keep my focus on You, Lord Jesus; that I may overcome the world, just as You have!
In You alone, Lord Jesus, I trust, obey, follow and believe!
Thank you for giving me divine rest in my present troubles; and preparing “a table before me in the presence of my enemies”! (Psalm 23:5)
Forgive me for my doubts that arise when I wickedly perceive You as my Preventer instead of who You truly are – my Deliverer!
I praise and thank You, O God, for in my problems and through my tears, I experience the blessed strain of my faith growing evermore deeply in You.
And indeed, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)
Grant me the resolve to exert my faith – to be victorious in You - so that I may know You more; and be prepared for eternal life in Your Kingdom!
I believe that my faith in You, Lord Jesus, is the victory that overcomes the world!
May I hold onto You all the days of my life.
Lord Jesus, thank You for having delivered me from the wages of sin – which is death; and for the divine knowledge that when I believed, my name has already been written in the “book of life”. (Ref: Revelation 21:27)
Thank You also, for daily delivering me from doubts and despair – which are the schemes of the evil one.
Jesus I believe in You.
And because Your Holy Spirit fills my life; there is no room for doubt in my life – thank You Lord!
May I daily declare with my mouth, that Jesus, You are my Lord; and believe in my heart that God has raised You from the dead. (Ref: Romans 10:9-10)
Thank You, O God, for helping me build a resolute and unwavering faith in You!
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!” (X3)
“And I’m so happy; so very happy! I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!” (X2)
“I’ve got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart!” (X3)
“I’ve got the wonderful love of my blessed redeemer way down in the depths of my heart!” (X3)
Chorus: “And I’m so happy; so very happy! I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!” (X2)
And so goes this wonderful children’s Praise Song.
When everything in life seems fine, it is easy, and even natural, to sing a song like that with confidence, certainty and joy.
But when challenges, sicknesses or the trials of life looms; this song would be furthest from our minds.
However if you have the presence of mind and resolve of heart to praise the Lord in the midst of the storm, it is then, and only then, that you are truly exerting your faith in Christ.
Do you truly understand what faith is?
Do you know how to nurture your faith in Christ?
Here are five essential building blocks of faith that will deepen your understanding of what faith truly entails.
Building Block #1:
Faith is really only required when we are in trouble; it is a spiritual muscle that must be exerted in order for it to get strong.
Faith is always exerted, tested, and tempered, when in adversity.
It cannot be ‘exercised’ on demand.
In adversity when faith is required, you either have it or you don't.
When you find yourself lacking faith, no amount of ‘exercising faith' will make you faithful to the Lord, and no amount of effort to ‘believe' will make you trust God more.
Faith cannot be simply exercised, it must be exerted.
In keeping the faith, the Apostle Paul speaks to the extreme discipline and exertion required of our faith which corresponds with a fight and a race.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)
In fact, our faith in God – manifested in our ability to utterly trust Him and to enjoy peace, joy and hope in spite of our tribulations – is the victory that overcomes the world.
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.” (1 John 5:4)
Strength comes only when we strain under stress.
No stress, no strain. No strain, No strength.
Only in the stress of adversity, do we exert and strain our faith muscles.
In peace and quiet, we do not need to exert faith; we exert faith and grow stronger, in order to find peace and quiet from Christ.
Building Block #2:
Faith is not about faith in a process; but faith in the Person of Jesus Christ.
The substance of faith is not based on a process of going through the troubles, but the person of Jesus Christ – our Saviour, our Deliverer – who holds our hand through the times of trouble.
Our Lord Jesus said in John 16:33:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We are to be joyful and peaceful; taking the troubles in our hearts and giving them to Jesus.
We are to trust Him; obey, follow and believe in Him.
He has overcome the world; and if we were to remain in Him – so shall we.
Building Block #3:
When we think about God as Deliverer - we must understand that He delivers us in trouble, NOT from trouble.
In the knowledge that life will consistently be fraught with troubles, David sang this song in Psalm 18 “when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”
“He said:
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
… … … …
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”
A very common misconception of the Christian life is that God delivers us from trouble.
As our Deliverer, God delivers us through our times of trouble so that we may know – as a matter of fact – that He is our God, in whom we can trust.
In acknowledging the nature of God as divine Deliverer through the inexorable troubles of life, Moses wrote in Psalm 91:
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
Indeed, rest in the Lord is only truly rest - when we are willing to trust Him to save you from the never-ending snares and pestilences of this life.
Building Block #4:
God is our Deliverer; NOT our Preventer.
The Name of Jesus means “God Saves”.
For indeed, God is our Salvation and our Deliverer.
We declare all the time that God is our Deliverer; but really in our minds, we prefer to believe and understand that God is our Preventor.
This is a misconception with serious ramifications for the Christian; resulting in unnecessary doubts, disillusionment and distress
We like to think of God as our Problem Solver – as one who prevents us from the tribulations that follow a problem; or worse, we think of God as our Problem Stopper – stopping problems to even happen in the first place.
We badly want God to be our Preventor; to prevent bad things from happening in our lives; that no trials nor tribulations would actually happen to us.
However, if we think carefully about it; without trials, tribulations or adversity, we absolutely have no need to exert our faith in Christ; and thus, without adversity, without strain, our faith muscles can never be strengthen, but in fact, weakened instead from lack of use.
Could God prevent bad things from happening to us?
Absolutely.
In fact, to an extent, He does.
You know the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
In the same way, you wouldn’t know what God prevented because He had already shielded you from it.
This is why all of our troubles in life are actually events that we need God to deliver us through.
He is our Shield that extinguished the flaming arrows of the evil one; and prevented us from experiencing the full effects of such a fiery death.
But the flaming arrows will continue to come.
And that is why we must continue to exert faith – that God will always deliver us.
Every time we exert and strain our faith muscles, we grow spiritually; and we grow stronger in our faith; and in our relationship with Christ.
When we praise God and pray to Him in our problems and through the tears; we experience the blessed strain of our faith growing.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:10-11:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
Romans 5:3-5
… … we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
When we exert our faith, we begin to know our Lord; we begin to learn what it means to persevere in the Lord.
Our character becomes tempered in preparation for the eternal Kingdom of God; and our hope in God and His Kingdom becomes certain, and more resolute.
God is NOT our Preventor; He is our Deliverer.
The notion that God is our Preventer robs us of attaining the kind of faith and strength required to truly be His Children.
As His Children, in spite of the tribulations of life, we will remain joyous, peaceful and missional – ever ready to be Christ’s witness - because we remain divinely hopeful that in the end “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)
I think we all prefer the notion of God as Preventer; but He will not allow Himself to be known to us as our Preventer; because He refuses to rob us of the divine opportunities to grow in the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ; to strain and build our faith muscles; and to be victorious in overcoming the world – just as He did.
Our Lord Jesus declares in Revelation 21:7:
“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
Do not get the order wrong.
The Lord does not give us victory in order to attain our divine and eternal destiny as people of His Kingdom; He rewards us with the Kingdom when we are victorious.
And utter faith in Christ guarantees our victory!
Remember 1 John 5:4?
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.” (1 John 5:4)
Faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world.
Hold on to Jesus all the days of your lives.
God does not prevent the troubles in our lives; He delivers us in the troubles of our lives.
As disciples of Christ, it is a very important distinction to make.
When you are easily distressed and shaken, constantly doubting God, or constantly blaming yourself, or finding someone to blame, it is because you have accepted the notion that God should have prevented bad things from happening to you.
It is a wrong understanding of the reality of our broken world; our sinful state; and it is certainly a wrong understanding of God.
But when we embrace the reality that our lives will be fraught with troubles; and also the reality that in spite of the troubles, God is always with us to deliver us through our troubles; we save ourselves from the unnecessary turmoil of asking questions like…
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?”
“Why me? Why do bad things always happen to me?”
Well… our Lord Jesus has already prepared us: “in this world you will have troubles. But take heart! I have overcome the world! And if you come to me, you will be victorious in spite of the troubles!” (John 16:33)
When you get thrown into the furnace, God is right here with you!
As His child, you and I can never stray away from God’s Will; for “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3 – and needless to say, the key premise here is that God is our Shepherd; and we are His sheep.)
And when you do come to Christ your Saviour and Deliverer, you receive a joy and peace that the world cannot take away from you; and you receive the blessed hope that in the end, your eternal destiny is found in the Kingdom of God.
You belong to God!
God is your Deliverer, never your Preventor.
Building Block #5:
God does not deliver us from disasters; He has delivered us from death – when we believed – and today, He delivers us from doubts.
We must understand that the process and workings of our Salvation and inclusion into His eternal Kingdom has already been established and fulfilled through Christ’s finished work of atonement for us – on the Cross.
It is a done deal.
For those who believe in the Salvific Love of God through Christ and live as His Holy Witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit, our names are written in the book of life.
Our struggles today are not against flesh and blood; but against the powers of darkness that attempts to enflame and attack us with schemes of doubt, and despair.
I’m not trying to make it sound simple; it is simple.
Faith is simple.
You either believe in Jesus; or you do not.
There is no middle road.
Faith is about the focus.
When we focus on the disasters , we become inward looking, earthbound, and are limited to worldly outcomes and solutions.
When we become bound to the flesh and blood, we simply will have no ability to see God at work
When we focus on our Deliverer, we open our lives to His Glorious, and Supernatural Purposes of inbreaking His Kingdom.
How do we focus on Christ our Deliverer? How do we stop doubting?
Simply believe!
Simply believe because the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing! (Psalm 23)
Simply believe in Christ, and you “will not perish, but have eternal life!” (John 3:16)
The Apostle Paul provides us more details as to the nuances of believing in Romans 10:9-10:
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
In Christ, you are already saved.
Have faith! Believe!
Five building blocks of faith.
Be familiar with them; daily exert your faith in Christ even in the smallest of your troubles.
Begin building your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ today.
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Power to live in supernatural faith daily; that I may constantly have the presence of mind and the resolve of heart to praise the Lord in the midst of the storm – for it is then, and only then, that I am truly exerting my faith in Christ.
Discipline me, O Lord, to exert faith to fight the good fight and finish the race!
(Ref: 2 Timothy 4:7)
Grant me the desire to strain towards You; to attain the strength of faith necessary to overcome every stress from the troubles of this world.
Help me to trust utterly in You; to enjoy peace, joy and hope in spite of my tribulations; in the knowledge that this faith is the victory that overcomes the world. (Ref: 1 John 5:4)
Make me keep my focus on You, Lord Jesus; that I may overcome the world, just as You have!
In You alone, Lord Jesus, I trust, obey, follow and believe!
Thank you for giving me divine rest in my present troubles; and preparing “a table before me in the presence of my enemies”! (Psalm 23:5)
Forgive me for my doubts that arise when I wickedly perceive You as my Preventer instead of who You truly are – my Deliverer!
I praise and thank You, O God, for in my problems and through my tears, I experience the blessed strain of my faith growing evermore deeply in You.
And indeed, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)
Grant me the resolve to exert my faith – to be victorious in You - so that I may know You more; and be prepared for eternal life in Your Kingdom!
I believe that my faith in You, Lord Jesus, is the victory that overcomes the world!
May I hold onto You all the days of my life.
Lord Jesus, thank You for having delivered me from the wages of sin – which is death; and for the divine knowledge that when I believed, my name has already been written in the “book of life”. (Ref: Revelation 21:27)
Thank You also, for daily delivering me from doubts and despair – which are the schemes of the evil one.
Jesus I believe in You.
And because Your Holy Spirit fills my life; there is no room for doubt in my life – thank You Lord!
May I daily declare with my mouth, that Jesus, You are my Lord; and believe in my heart that God has raised You from the dead. (Ref: Romans 10:9-10)
Thank You, O God, for helping me build a resolute and unwavering faith in You!
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.