How Can We Live by Faith More Consistently?

by Eldon

First, here is an explanation for those of you who may be new to this site and maybe don't know the intended context of the question, "How can we live by faith more consistently?"  The faith being addressed here is the belief that God exists and has revealed Himself and His plan in the Bible and that He rewards those "who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11).

People live by faith in the Lord God and His Word because they are convinced or persuaded that who He is and what He has revealed about Himself and His plan is in fact true.  And believers in Christ Jesus should live like they truly believe what they say they believe.  The problem is this: we are often weak and frail and fail do this as we should.  Our faith waivers.  We become entangled or weighed down with sin.  If we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ and provided deliverance from sin and death and eternal life with Himself forever by means of sacrificing Himself through His awful and horrible death, we should live by faith in thankfulness to Him.  But why don't we do this more consistently?  The most important explanation and answers are given in the letter to the Hebrews in the Bible.  We do not keep on "fixing our eyes on Jesus" as we should (Hebrews 12:1-3).  We do not set aside the sin that so easily entangles us.  And when we do confess our sin we often do not ponder the truth of Christ and His love for us following our confession (1 John 1:5 - 2:2).  We live by faith more and more consistently as we keep on looking unto Jesus, bringing to mind who He is, what He has accomplished for us, and most importantly, how much He loves us.

The people who first read the letter to the Hebrews (or more often than not heard it read or cited from memory in their time) struggled to live by faith much like we do.  So the Spirit of the Lord moved the author of this wonderful epistle to include the great "hall of faith," as it has been frequently called (Hebrews 11).  Believers in the Lord who had great faith lived out their faith in the Lord and revealed this in their decisions to act upon what they had become convinced was true.  Believers such as Moses who could have settled for a comfortable life as a prince in Egypt but instead identified himself with his relatives, the children of Israel (Jacob).  The amazing thing about these believers of great faith like Moses was that they lived before Christ Jesus came to earth.  And yet they showed they had great faith by the way that they lived!  Shame on us who live after the cross and resurrection of Christ for not living by faith more consistently.  And what's our problem?  We just don't fix our eyes on Jesus and ponder who He is and what He has done for us.  We do not renew our confidence and trust in Him like we should from day to day and hour to hour.

Notice I said we!  I'm right there with you.  I often do not live by faith like I should.  But I'm crying out to Jesus for the grace to live be faith and please Him more today than I did before.

So what's our Lord Jesus, our Savior, calling you to do this day to express your confidence in Him, obviously showing that you have been persuaded that His Word is true?