Where is your faith?

Luke 8.22-24 (esp. v25)

• Is it in your feelings? (do you believe as long as you feel optimistic)
• Is it in your circumstances? (do you believe or not believe depending on whether the situation looks hopeful)
• Is it in your thinking? (do you believe as long as you can self-talk yourself into it – mind over matter)

The disciples in the boat had run down to their last drop of faith.

• No faith existed in their feelings – they were already overwhelmed by anxious feelings.
• No faith existed in the circumstances (as they saw them) - because the boat was already filled with water and about to founder.
• No faith existed in their thinking – they had already exhausted all their ideas for staying afloat.

So where does faith lie? It resides in what God says he will do. Faith is belief and when God speaks to us his self-belief convinces us to believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you were hanging off the edge of a 2^nd storey window ledge and I was to mumble that there was a chance that I could catch you if you jumped into my arms, my lack of self-belief would erode your confidence in me. But if I felt fully able to catch you and I called up to you confidently to let go, then it might seem very reasonable to avoid the flames at the window and have faith in my ability to break your fall.

Where is your faith? Your faith is a gift. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Eph 2). That gift is shared with you through the Word. The Holy Spirit helps you to hear and receive the Word in such a way that the Lord’s self-belief creates faith in him within you.

This is the reason why we need to be frequently and seriously loading God’s word into our lives, so that daily we can be convinced by God’s self-belief to believe his promises to us. Don’t expect to find faith in your feelings, in hopeful circumstances or in your reasoning. Find it in God’s self-belief.