Jesus was never astounded at someone’s righteousness. He never said, “Hey, guys, would you look at that person! He’s perfect in the way he behaves.” He was never astounded by anybody’s intelligence either. He never said, “Let’s get Matthew to handle finances. The guy’s phenomenal with numbers.” No.

The only thing Jesus ever marveled about was someone’s faith—or lack of it.

Faith is Christianity 101. Hebrews 11, the famous faith chapter, says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV). That verse is an eye-opener, isn’t it?

We can cry a river of tears for our misbehavior. We can make promises until the cows come home to do better. We can sing songs; we can even read the Bible. Unless it comes from faith, we can’t please the Lord.

A Roman centurion came to Jesus once and said, “Would You heal someone in my home?”

Jesus said, “Shall I come to your house?”

The centurion said, “No, no, no. Don’t waste Your time. Just speak the word, and I know my servant will be healed.”

Jesus stopped and said to the disciples, “Look, I haven’t seen faith like this anywhere. This is not even a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but look at the faith he has” (see Matthew 8:5–13). Jesus was moved by faith.

He was also moved by a lack of faith. Do you know that when He went back to where He had grown up, the Bible says, astoundingly, that He could not do many miracles there because of people’s unbelief? The problems weren’t too big or the diseases too complex for Jesus; it’s as if His hands were tied by the unbelief around Him.

Faith is everything in terms of our approach to God and walking victoriously in the Lord. In fact, Jesus once said, “According to your faith let it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29, NIV). He puts the ball in our court, as it were.

What are we going to do with a verse like that? With big faith, we’ll have a big God doing great things in our lives. With little faith, we’ll hardly know that God is there all day long. That’s the truth.

When we’re walking by faith, God brings us into two realms of living that people who don’t know the Lord don’t understand.

First, we live in the realm of “what we hope for” (Hebrews 11:1)—that’s the future. As we read God’s promises in His Word, faith makes them so sure to us that we change our whole pattern of living. That’s what made Noah build an ark when God told him, “There’s a storm coming” (see Genesis 6:17). That’s what faith does—it makes us confident about future things, which affects the way we live now.

Second, we become confident about “what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Someone once defined faith as the ability of the soul to perceive and take in what the five senses cannot. People who live by faith are living by realities that no one else can see.

In fact, decisions made by faith can seem foolish. “What are you doing that for?” people sometimes ask.

A young lady from our church went to work with the Yazidi people in the Middle East. She works among them, loving and caring for them, but she also deals with hassling and dangerous situations. We helped her, thank God, buy a car so she won’t have to take cabs and put up with nonsense. But why would she leave all the comforts of America to face danger and help people who sometimes don’t even want her help? She did it by faith.

She knew that God had called her. Can she prove it? Is there a written contract God made with her? No—it was all by faith.

That’s why Abraham left where he lived when God told him, “Go. I’ll show you a land that I’m going to give you” (see Genesis 12:1). He went out and became the father of everyone who believes. He did that by faith.

Abraham was commended not because he lived a perfect life—he didn’t. He was a sinner, like we are. No, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (see Genesis 15:6).

So come on. Let’s walk by faith. Let’s dig into the Word, open our hearts, stand on God’s promises, and live with our eyes on invisible things. We know who holds tomorrow, and it will affect the way we live, to the glory of God.


Prayer

Lord Jesus, increase our faith. Help us to live with our eyes on You and our hearts open to Your guiding. Thank You for keeping every promise You make.

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