Give Glory to God and Grow Strong In Your Faith

What does it mean to have strong faith?  How do we get strong faith?  Our faith is nothing that we can boast about outside of the work of Jesus Christ.

Although faith without works is dead, in other words as the NIV points out in James 2:17,

... faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Who wants dead faith?  So we work and strive and try to do more to gain God's favor and  in so doing we often convince ourselves that our faith is dependent on us.

In Tim Keller's book, Romans 1-7 for you, says that if saving faith equals obedience then we have something to boast about but faith is separate from our works.  He says that saving faith is a trust transfer.

We trust in the promises of God through Jesus Christ and HIS work!  If we want to live by works of the law and not Christ's atoning work then the law of faith is nullified and the promises of God are bankrupt!

Romans 4:14

For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs,

faith is null and the promise if void.

So as we rely on ourselves and our own work, the promises of God are no longer available to us!

God wants us to trust Him but so often we try to go ahead of Him and make things happen for ourselves, erroneously believing in the non- scriptural saying, "God helps those who help themselves."  

HE is our help, He is our faith!  He is our work!  We can rest on and in Him!  And the strength of our faith is not how much we can muster up to believe or declare over our lives but as Romans 4 points out, Abraham had no bearing on his own faith.

Romans 4:19-20

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, 

which was as good as dead 

(since he was about a hundred years old), 

or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.  

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God,

but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 

When we give glory to God despite our unbelief, our faith grows strong!

Abraham gave glory to God by trusting God.  He transferred his trust in himself and his own abilities, knowing full well that unless God moved on he and Sarah's bodies, they would not conceive a child.

He gave God the glory due Him by believing in the promise that God had made to him.

Romans 4:22

That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness."

Not because he boasted and trusted in his own strength and ability, but because he believed that God was a promise keeping God.

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE what Romans 4:23-25 says next

But the words "it was counted to him" were not written 

for his sake alone, but for ours also.  

It will be counted to us who believe in him 

who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 

who was delivered up for our trespasses 

and raised for our justification. 

God is so gracious to us to give us a clear picture of what it looks like to give glory to Him in order that our faith would grow strong.

Our faith cannot grow strong by us believing more or doing more but by trusting more fully in the promises of God given us by the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Abraham did not find security in his own strength but he relied on the Lord to provide a means of salvation for him!

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 says it well,

Such is the confidence (trust) that we have 

through Christ toward God.  

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves 

to claim anything as coming from us, 

but our sufficiency is from God, 

who has made us sufficient 

to be ministers of a new covenant, 

not of the letter but of the Spirit.  

For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  

He makes us sufficient so that we can be ministers of a new covenant!  So we can tell people that we don't have to work harder but trust more!

Abba Father,
Thank you for our faith!  Thank you for our work!  Thank you Spirit for your help!  We transfer our trust to You today and trust in what and who You have promised us through Jesus Christ!

Thank you for the gift of justification.  We come to you empty handed today to receive Your great generosity, we do not base our faith on how we feel or what we see or what we do but we rely solely on the sufficient work of Christ for our faith!

Thank you that Jesus fulfilled the law and by doing so as we abide in Him we too have fulfilled the requirement of the law.