God gives and keeps faith

A Bible word search faith got 447 hits. The first verse that popped into my mind was Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is believing in a God you can’t see yourself. Some call Hebrews 11 the faith chapter because it describes faith in so many ways. The first question people need to address is its origin. Romans 10:17 helps with that, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Having faith and believing in God are different ways of coming at the same thing. We must believe he exists, that he does what he says, and that what he says is true. It’s about one thing and that is the endgame — “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:9, ESV)

The amount of faith varies

Having saving faith means you believe in God as your Savior. It also seems to exist in various degrees, quantities or qualities. One time, “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”” (Luke 17:5, ESV). Another time, “He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”” (Matthew 17:20, ESV). So even a tiny bit of faith can move mountains, as Jesus’ illustration says. Once you have faith, you realize that you would like to have more of it so that you can trust God more fully. God also is said to test faith by allowing hard times in the lives of believers. Such struggles are said to strengthen faith. Thus, we pray daily for stronger faith.