Lord, increase my faith!

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “The righteous will live by faith: Romans 1:17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Lord, increase my faith!”

This morning, we are going to continue our thinking from yesterday regarding why and how the people of God are to learn how to live by faith. In yesterday’s devotional we considered the example of the Old Testament prophet Habbakuk. It was his vison and his writing that the Apostle Paul was thinking of and borrowing from when he wrote Romans 1:17.

That direct challenge, indeed, that command from God, is so important that Paul wrote it here in Romans 1:17; and he wrote it again in Galatians 3:11; and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews used it in Hebrews 10:38-39. It is essential that God’s people trust Him, and it is essential that we believe His ways are always right and best. Then we need to live in such a way that the world can see that we really do believe that.

One of the greatest challenges for believers today is to live by faith and to communicate the righteousness of God to the unbelieving world (especially when life is hard), and to do it in ways that the world can relate to. Doing that is being both theological and missional. By that I meant we take our sound doctrine and communicate it by talking to people about it, but we also model it in ways that make a real difference in the lives of real people. Being theological is little more than an academic exercise unless we are also missional in that we can show how sound doctrine makes a meaningful difference in the real world.

The best life any of us will ever have is the one that is lived in the center of God’s will. But more than just claiming that to be true, we must show it to be true. The observing world needs to see that it is true in our lives before they are going to believe it could be true in their lives.

How does this come to be true of us? As Paul wrote in verse 1:17, it is from faith to faith. It begins by having faith and it continues as we live by faith. It’s the old truth that we must believe first and we will experience second. We make a choice for faith, and then we begin to experience the fruit of faith. Then the more we experience the fruit of faith, the stronger our faith gets. Faith feeds faith. This is faith from faith. It grows over time, becoming stronger and more all-encompassing.

We need strong faith and we want strong faith so we can live by faith. So, we cry with the distraught Father in Luke 17:5 “Lord, increase my faith. I do believe, help me in my unbelief.”

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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