Many people think that having faith is something needed simply to get us started on the Christian journey; after that, it’s just a question of plodding on. I think this is one of the most fallacious and dangerous views that we can ever have (see Gal 3:1-6 to see what Paul thought of it!)
Every day, God challenges us to dare to believe Him. Faith is having confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb 11:1). Every day we put our trust in a God we cannot see, believing not only that He exists but that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Heb 11:6) In other words, we believe not only in God’s existence (lots of people believe that, even the demons, James reminds us (Js 2:19)), but in His character as revealed in the Bible – that He is love, just, compassionate, forgiving, merciful, gracious, patient, kind, righteous and both omniscient and omnipotent, and also that He longs to give good gifts to those who ask Him (Matt 7:11).
That means every day we need to dare to believe what God says over and above what other people say, what our feeble hearts may say, what the enemy of our souls may say. We need to dare to ask God for things which are impossible for us to receive without His intervention and help. We need to dare to ask that He will use us to speak words of life to people who don’t know Him, that He will speak His words of life through us, that He will do for us and for our friends, families, neighbours and enemies things which are impossible in the natural and only possible through His divine power.
This kind of faith is exciting, daunting and challenging. We develop it by pouring fuel onto the fire: the fuel of faith, stoked by the Word of God and maintained by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Dying embers have to be prodded into life as we speak the life-giving Word of God over our situations: ‘over fear, over lies, we’re singing the truth that nothing is impossible with You.’ (‘Every Giant Will Fall’, Rend Collective)
The truth is that life is meant to be an adventure with God: a dazzling dance, a journey where the impossible becomes possible. Paul says God is able to ‘do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine’ (Eph 3:20), but adds ‘according to his power that is at work within us’! As we meditate on this verse and others like it (eg Eph 1:19-20), let’s dare to believe that today can be different as we receive God’s power and pass it on to others in need.