FAITH

WHAT IS FAITH?

Faith in Christianity, as in other Abrahamic religions, centers on a belief in God, a belief in the reality of a transcendent domain that God administers as His kingdom, and in the benevolence of God's will or plan for humankind.

Faith is trusting God. It is living in a relationship with God that is motivated and sustained by one’s conviction that God does keep his word. Faith is believing that God keeps his promises and then accepting his grace from Jesus, his Son. Faith is living in this relationship of trust moment by moment in accord with God’s will. Both God’s grace and faith are his gifts to those who believe.

But Scripture defines faith as:

 Heb 11:1-13:

 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

FAITH IS A CERTAIN HOPE OR EXPECTATION THAT GOD WILL DELIVER WHAT HE HAS PROMISED

Acting in Faith

Real faith has corresponding actions.
Looking at Hebrews 11:4-37, we see that all those who are commended for their faith did something as well. It is possible to have actions, even religious actions, without real faith - but these actions are dead works. Without faith you can't please God. Hebrews 11:6.


Overcoming the Enemies of faith

1. Ignorance. You cannot believe a promise until you hear it or find it. Much unbelief rises out of the fact that people just don't know what the Bible says. The cure for this is study, meditation and consideration of the Word.

2. Unbelief. This is the sinful choice to not believe God. It is usually motivated by pride, rebellion and ignorance. The cure for this is therefore to humble oneself, change one's mind, choose to believe. Fasting puts done the flesh and is often very effective in destroying the power of unbelief, because it aids in humbling ourselves and in removing fleshly distractions to the voice of God. If done correctly it can help us to focus on God and will make the spiritual things more intense to us, thereby destroying unbelief.

3. Fear. Negative fear is a negative emotion based on the real expectation of bad things to come. It is rooted in anxiety and a lack of trust in God's fatherly protection and love. Perfect love casts out fear. 1John 4:18. God is perfect love. Therefore by seeking God, His presence and the fullness of His Spirit we will be set free from fear. When we are conscious of God's power it is very easy to be courageous and bold. We expect success when we are consciously full of God and know that we are doing what He is telling us to do. To overcome fear we must look to God and not to natural considerations which could cause our failure if God were not with us. Peter, looking to the wind and the waves, was overcome by a fear which paralysed his faith and caused him to sink. He needed to keep looking to Jesus. God says, "Fear not, FOR I AM WITH YOU." Isaiah. 43:5. God gives us a reason not to fear, and a commandment. To fear anyone or anything except the Lord is a sin. We can overcome this sin by being full of God and looking to Him. Also we must forgive all men if we want to be delivered from this form of torment. Matthew 18:34  and  I John 4:18

4. Doubt. Doubt is an enemy to faith because it speaks with a voice that challenges the truth or the reliability of what we should be believing. To overcome doubt we must fill ourselves with the Word of God, meditating deeply and repetitively on it. Doubt is the evidence of an unconsecrated heart and mind. It is the evidence of lack of devotion to God's Word. Doubt, like fear, torments. We must forgive others and give our whole hearts to God. We must stop listening to the voice of demons or the voice of our own carnal mind trained from early days to resist God. This is a decision. It helps to hear the testimonies of others to overcome doubt. However, doubt will never be fully overcome until we treat the Bible as God's voice TO US.

5. Discouragement. Sometimes we feel discouraged because of physical or emotional weakness or tiredness. We may be disappointed by the behavior of other Christians. We may be discouraged by the persecution of others, even of our families. Perhaps we have waited for what may or may not be God's promise to us, and we grow impatient. Many Christians at some time in their life become disappointed with God. Satan uses discouragement to weaken and if possible destroy our faith. To overcome discouragement we must make a decision to be strong Hebrews 12:12; Ephesians 6:10 in the Lord. We must want to be strong and stop making excuses for our weakness and failure. We must consider God's faithfulness to us in the past, even through difficulties Hebrews 10:32-34. We must rededicate ourselves to God's Word, to thankfulness, to prayer and to the voice of the Spirit. We need to learn to obey the Spirit in small things. Sometimes even great men of God like Elijah were discouraged. At one time, even after a great victory, he ran away from Jezebel, the witch. God restored Elijah through the ministry of angels, through his voice, and by getting him occupied in new missions for God full of the promise of hope.


6. The Love of Praise. When you are more interested in what people - even Christian people - think of you, more than what God thinks of you, according to Jesus, you won’t be able to truly believe in Him. Why? Because God’s priorities and man’s are different. Jesus said, "How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?" John 5:44.
To overcome this, you must cultivate a personal relationship with God through prayer and obedience. You must allow your old nature to be weakened as you say yes to God and no to these desires for seeking praise and recognition.

Conclusion.
 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are `Yes' in Christ. ... 2 Corinthians 1:20.
Faith will endure to the end. Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac to be born. Caleb waited 40 years for his land. Noah waited 120 years for his physical salvation. Faith does not look at the calendar, but to Christ. Hope may last a few minutes or a few months. Faith will endure until it is replaced by the thing for which we are believing.


Faith is not hope. Faith is the means by which we receive those things we hope for. Neither is faith sight. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith can only operate in the realm of the invisible concerning those things we hope for and do not yet see. Faith cannot exist in the visible realm. When the things we hope for are manifested to our sight, then faith, the invisible "substance," having done its work, is supplanted by the visible substance, that is, the things we hope for. When the actuality comes into view, then the image (faith) vanishes.

PRAYERS

WHAT IS PRAYING? 

It is essentially the time we spend being conscious of being in the presence of God, and of desiring to know and love Him more each time.

Prayer includes respect, love, pleading and faith. Through a prayer a devotee expresses his helplessness and endows the doership of the task to God. Giving the doership to God means that we acknowledge that God is helping us and getting the task done. Prayer is an important tool of spiritual practice in the generic spiritual path of Devotion. 

If we can see praying as not only something we set aside a particular time for each day but as something we can do as we work, run, eat, converse, wait for appointments and yes, even sleep then God will be our constant companion. We then shall be able to turn to Him so easily when we most need Him in those most difficult and discerning moments.

Although we can pray at any time, there are two times that are very important in our Christian journey: the first is the first thing we do on awakening. We commend ourselves into God's care for the day and ask Him to teach us and show us what His will is for us and to give us His grace to do it, and we thank God for the rest of the night. The second, is at the end of the day when we view the day, thanking God for it, confessing our failures and sins, forgiving any injury to us, and commending ourselves into His and the angels' care for the night.

KINDS OF PRAYERS

1. Public Prayer  

When we join our fellow Christians in Church and in the course of the service we prays severally together as a congregation.Before leaving we make sure we have said thank you for the Service and to be conscious that as we have received the Lord's message, we should act as He would always want us to.

2. Private Prayer

 

This consists of various kinds of prayers

    a). PRAISE - when our hearts are full of joy and love for God and His abundant bounty.

    b). THANKSGIVING - when our hearts are full of appreciation for God and His immeasurable                                  gifts of love and goodness, often from others.

    c). CONFESSION - when our hearts are full of contrition for our sins against God, our fellow                                       sisters and brothers, and even against ourselves.

    d). INTERCESSION - when our hearts are full of concern about the plight and need of others.

    e). PETITION - when our hearts are full of concern for our own situation.

 3. Silent Prayer

This kind of prayer allows us to listen to God to be conscious of God within and in a sense just soak in God.

 
It is indeed a very precious time, and without it we do not make much progress in our prayer life. So it is something we should do each day. Many find the best time is early in the morning when the world is still relatively quiet, and the bustle of the day's routine is still in the future. When we first begin silent prayer or contemplation as it is called, it is best to practise it in the context of saying the Morning Office, or our Morning Prayer or Meditation

4.  Prayers at Meals 

Sometimes referred to as grace. 
 To help us to recognise that God is the provider of all we have we ask God to bless our food before eating

  

5.  Meditation

We meditate when we read passages of scripture or holy

writings in a prayerful way. 
 
That is we seek God's guidance to understand what we read, and to give some insight to our daily lives and to our own spiritual journey.. Usually when we spend time meditating or reflecting we pray first, then read the passage, reflect upon what we have read, make some resolution in regards to ourselves and or situation, and pray for grace to fulfill that resolution. It is one of the ways which helps us to know the mind, teaching and will of Christ and His Father better

6.  The Lord's Prayer

The very best prayer to pray is the prayer Our Lord

taught His disciples.
 
Learn to say it slowly and with meaning.

 Other Prayers

 Within worship is a conversation, but sometimes the words dry up when we start talking to the creator of the universe! At times like this it can be useful to dip into prayers that are written by other people or by ourselves, as they can often inspire us and open our minds to new ways of praising and worshiping our God.

 

PRAISE GOD ALWAYS

Praising God - The First Thing!
 

PRAISE GOD ALWAYS

Do you know that praising God is the best thing to do first before anything else? Have you ever been in a situation that you feel all alone? Or have you encountered a difficult situation in your life and you don't know what to do, like losing your job or suffering the loss of someone very close to your heart? Consider the good times such as when you receive a raise from your boss or earn high marks at school? What do you usually do during these moments? Praising God makes every circumstance of our lives complete, essential, and eminently worthwhile.
 To  praise is to say good things about and it is synonymous to words such as admire, commend, extol, honor, and worship. A definition of Christian praise is the joyful thanking and adoring of God, the celebration of His goodness and grace. This simply implies that the act of praising is rightfully due to God alone. 

Praising God - Why?

Great is the LORD and most worthy of Praise

Why is praising God important? The reasons are countless. First, God deserves to be praised and He is worthy to receive our praise:

• "For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods" (Psalm 96:4).
• "Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom" (Psalm 145:3).
• "I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies" (2 Samuel 22:4).
• "You are worthy, our LORD and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being" (Revelation 4:11).

Second, praising God is useful and favorable for us. By praising God, we are reminded of the greatness of God! His power and presence in our lives is reinforced in our understanding. "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant" (Psalm 135:3).

Third, praise discharges strength in faith, which causes God to move on our behalf. "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger" (Psalm 8:2). Praising God also transforms the spiritual environment that we have. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 clearly illustrates the alteration that happened when the Levites gave praise and thanks to the Lord and the temple was filled with a cloud signifying the glory of God. "The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: 'He is good; his love endures forever.' Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God."

Fourth, God inhabits the atmosphere of praise. Psalm 22:3 says, "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel (KJV). If we want to see a clear manifestation of God's blessings and grace, all we need to do is to praise Him with all our heart, our mind, and our soul. 
 
Praising God - Who and When?
 
Who is to praise God? "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD," states Psalm 150:6.

• "I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips (Psalm 34:1)."
• "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands" (Psalm 63:3-4).
• "Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD" (Psalm 134:1-2).

We cannot embark on the true joy and benefits of praising God unless we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. As children of God, He dwells in our bodies through the Holy Spirit. This means that wherever we go, God is to be praised. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states that "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
 
Praising God - How to Praise and Worship God
 
How is praising God possible? Singing songs and hymns, clapping our hands, even jumping for joy…the list is endless. We can give glory and praise to our God with the use of our physical bodies, with our hearts and minds, and with our deeds. There are many ways to praise God! No matter how you praise and worship God, it should result in an awe of God's power, love, and grace for all of us!

I WILL NEVER GET TIRED TO PRAISE JESUS' NAME

NEVER GET TIRED OF DOING WHAT IS GOOD.

 

2 Thessalonians 3:13

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. 

"The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made".  Psalm 145:9

Another passage of Scripture states that God allows the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous.

God’s nature is good to all. He is merciful even to those who consider themselves His enemies. The greatest example of this was Jesus, who died for those who disagreed with Him.

God’s compassion is seen with each breakthrough in science, art, or technology. Whether through the revelation from a pulpit or the revelation of a math problem solved, God’s compassion is seen every moment of every day.

HONOR THE LORD

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20"

The Temple of Israel was where God dwelt among his people. It was a holy place, set apart for God’s purposes and presence. The Apostle Paul is telling us here that this is what our bodies have become. “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Our bodies have now been set apart for God’s Holy Spirit to live in. This is an amazing thought! Because of this we are not to treat our bodies like they were given to us merely for our own personal use.

God paid a great price for us with the life and death of his Son. We are responsible to take good care of our bodies-valuing them-and in so doing, honoring the God who now dwells within.