Faith works by love!

   

In Luke 17:1-4 Jesus set out telling the disciples how sin affects those around the one sinning. He was warning them about being a stumbling block to others. He  talks to His disciples about forgiving others. Now, keep in mind His disciples had seen Jesus raise the dead, walk on water, calm a storm and other miracles. They were to do likewise and never once said to Jesus what they said in verse 5, “Increase our faith”. Yep, that forgiveness business can be tough. In verses 6-10 Jesus goes on to once again tell them they had faith, they just needed to release it. 

   Faith is like a tea bag, the longer you use it the stronger it gets. The tea bag has the same potential whether you steep it 1 minute or 5 minutes. So how do we release faith? God has laws of faith in place, and if we will learn about them and apply them, we can effectively release our faith. Jesus touched on what I think is the most important of the laws of faith in that passage. First, you must do as Philemon 1:6 says, “... that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” We must recognize, understand and appreciate all that we have in Christ Jesus, in this case particularly the faith God gave us. We must acknowledge it. In recognizing and understanding that faith we must acknowledge that we were all given “the” measure of faith at salvation. There really is not such a thing for born again believers as BIG faith, or little faith. It is more like strong (seasoned) faith, and weak (unused) faith. Once that is grasped I think the key of the laws of faith is that faith works by love. That is how we forgive as Jesus was talking about in Luke 17. Walking in love is key to any success in the Kingdom of God. Why? Because God is love and you are walking as He is, and because 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.”

   Grab your Bible and dig into the verses that talk about the faith you have. It will absolutely renew your mind to who you are in Christ. Instead of measuring your faith by the circumstances you see you will begin to see things in a way that you will expect those things you are believing for. 

Have a day today that tomorrow you will applaud!