Why Does Our Faith Waver?
Romans 10:9-10(NLT) tells us, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Getting right with God is everything! It’s life itself, and to do it, we must believe that God raised His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead, and we must confess openly that Jesus Christ is Lord! This passage is so incredibly important for the life of any individual because it begins our spiritual journey in Christ. In a nutshell, our journey starts with our faith in Christ, it continues with our faith in Christ, and it never ends if our faith remains in Christ.
There are some people that do as Romans 10:9-10 instructs, but they don’t continue to grow in Christ. Their faith is up one day and down the next. Others become disillusioned because they expected all their problems to go away or to receive a bunch of blessings all at once. Genuine faith is about our relationship with Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:6(NLT) says, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” To please God, we must have faith in His Word and trust Him to back His Word. Our faith is a demonstration of our gratitude to Heavenly Father for all He’s done. It is our fully persuaded belief that God will do what He promised in His Word.
Philippians 4:19(NLT) is a source of great encouragement. It says, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” God is our Source. He is our Sufficiency and supplies all our need. As we grow in spiritual maturity, one of the lessons we learn is that ‘need’ and ‘want’ are two very different things. A need is a necessity for our total well-being according to God’s standard. A want is a strong desire or wish for something, and while receiving the thing we desire may add to our well-being, the thing that we want could also harm our well-being. So, if our desires are not on the level of a need, receiving them may not be necessary for our well-being. Spiritual maturity beckons us to understand that God blesses us with the great desires of our hearts when our hearts are in alignment with what He says is best. He supplies those things that are necessary for you and me to continue growing in Christ, to live life abundantly, and to fulfill His purpose.
Philippians 4:6(NLT) instructs, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” It is important to know and make the distinction between a want and a need so that we seek to know God’s Will regarding what is best for our spiritual journey in Christ. Some people that have accepted Christ as the Lord of their lives also become disappointed when their desires don’t materialize according to their timetable. They don’t take the time to seek God about what is best for them, and they don’t have a confident faith that He knows exactly what they need and has already supplied it. They doubt God’s power and love, and this is a very costly mistake.
Doubt is an enemy to our faith, and therefore, it is an enemy to our relationship with God. Doubt takes our minds away from God, because we’ve allowed ourselves to focus on other things, and not centered our thoughts and gratitude on Him. If we persist in doubt, it won’t take long before other temptations capture our attention, and our faith diminishes to the point that we’re going backward instead of forward. Any time that we take our eyes off Heavenly Father and start looking at our circumstances and conditions, there’s a risk of wavering in our faith.
A popular saying tells us that what we focus on becomes bigger. We see this with problems and trouble. Rather than having faith that nothing is too big for our God to solve, sometimes we allow worry and doubt to overtake our emotional state, and this demonstrates that we aren’t trusting God as we should.
Life is the most rewarding experience imaginable, but it can also be very challenging at times. Heavenly Father doesn’t ever abandon us when times are tough. He’s right there with us, and because we are His kids, He expects that we will cling to Him, renew our minds to His Word, and continue praying as He comforts and strengthens us. We can be so convinced that we know what we need, but our Heavenly Father knows best. The adversary is always trying to deceive us and make us doubt so that we don’t trust the Lord with all our hearts, but we must recognize this evil plot for what it is. God timing isn’t our timing, but His timing is perfect, and if we keep our faith firmly anchored in Him, Romans 8:28 tells us that He will cause all things to work together for our good.■
“Why Does Our Faith Waver?”, written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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