The Gift of Faith Must Be Exercised…..

Faith comes from God, and it grows only when you exercise it. It’s not a mystical power. It cannot be generated on our own. Faith is God giving us special insight into the spiritual world. It’s only then that this faith we are to have, begins to transform us into new creatures. It’s not a one time occurrence, rather it’s a daily, volitional choice we make to embrace. Once God grants us the gift of faith, it’s up to us to put it into action. Faith without works is dead, and faith not received from God isn’t real faith either. People think, “if only God would send me a sign, I’d have the faith I need to get through this or that”, but the truth is if you’re not asking God specifically to give you the faith necessary to make it through a trial, don’t expect to “Dream it up” yourself. A great example of this are the teachers of the religious law. They witnessed Jesus say “your sins are forgiven” to the paralyzed man, and even witnessed Jesus heal him, but they couldn’t get over the fact that He forgave the man of his sin. They refused to accept Jesus’ miraculous healing as coming from God. They didn’t ask God to help them with their doubts or unbelief, as the man did Whom Jesus healed his son. Unless we ask God for the gift of faith, and exercise it when He does answer our prayers, we will be like the religious leaders who get caught up in the details and miss the entire point of the Gospel. Faith comes from God, if you don’t ask, your faith will never be the kind that can save a soul.

1 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that He was back home. 2 Soon the house where He was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While He was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above His head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is He saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so He asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’?10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” Mark 2:1-12