EDITORIAL: STICKING TO MY FAITH

Having faith in God is not just thinking you know what you believe. It’s being sure of who God is, that He is creator of the universe which includes you. Having faith in God is being confident that He loves you, that He cares about your life, and that He’s in control of your future. It believes that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.

Being saved through faith is knowing it is by grace that you’ve been saved through faith. Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.” It’s when we realize we’re messy and we need someone to come clean up our mess that we see God’s work in our lives. When we put our faith in Him and we believe that Jesus came to clean up our mess, that’s when we’re saved from our sins.

How strong is your faith? There are going to be so many things that will challenge and test your faith. If your faith isn’t strong enough, it will be easy to fall. There will be many things throughout life that will test your faith and pull you in all different directions away from God.  James 1: 2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” If your faith is the size of a mustard seed you can move any mountain you come across. Trust in God with everything you do (Matthew 17:20)

Did you know that faith and duct tape have things in common? Duct tape is like faith because it holds things together. For example, one day I was in class and my friend dropped and broke her glasses. Thankfully, my teacher had a roll of duct tape and she was able to put her glasses back together. In the same way, faith is kind of like the foundation that holds our lives together. Faith is like duct tape because faith is what holds the seams of our relationship with God together. Our faith is what believes what the Bible says no matter what it looks like around you. Faith will help keep you together when you feel you’re falling apart. Faith is trusting in God and knowing you can come out on top no matter what comes your way. So faith is like duct tape because it holds your life together. Faith, like duct tape can be used in a variety of situations. You might be facing a problem. You can whip out your roll of faith and patch together that bad situation with what the Bible says. Faith can be used in any time and in any situation. Faith in God is always the answer to whatever situation you’re facing. (Hebrews 11:1)  “What is faith? It is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.” Lastly, faith is like duct tape because you can rely on it. You know that when you need a patch or to hold something together you can trust the duct tape to do its job. It’s trusting that God is going to go to bat for you. He’s going to provide for you no matter what you’re facing.

So you can choose to just believe in God and maybe come to church when you have the time, and you can give yourself the label of “Christian.” You can do that. But if you want to see who God really is and what He can really do in your life, and if you want to make a difference in the lives of those around you and in this world, then it’s time to put your faith into action. It’s time to fully out your faith in God, our Creator, who loves you intimately and sent His Son to die for you. It’s time to let that faith determine the way you live from here on out. This is faith!