Got Faith?

If you have never done a Bible study by Beth Moore, I would encourage you to do so! She doesn't write 'frou-frou' studies with cheesy homework. Nu-uh. Beth is one tough cookie, and she is not satisfied unless she's got her women digging deep.

We just completed "Believing God: Experiencing a Fresh Explosion of Faith" in our women's study at our Church. Words can never accurately express the life-changing qualities of this study. My good friend Christine is currently working through the book, and she is telling me that I HAVE to read it this summer. We participated in the DVD and study guide version, and I've been telling Christine that she simply MUST watch the DVDs. I'm telling you people, this is powerful stuff!

Here are some truths I learned about faith through Beth's inspired teaching.
- Faith is more than just believing in God, faith is the decision to believe God - to trust His Word and His promises and His power in our lives, no matter what our circumstances. (I liken it to the concept of love in marriage - sometimes love is much more a decision than it is a feeling. Ditto for faith - believing God is a choice we make regardless of our emotions.)
- The #1 hindrance to our calling becoming our reality is unbelief. Belief is the only thing that will bring our theology into alignment with our reality (it is the thing that makes our walk match our talk).
- To be righteous (clean in the eyes of God), He requires our active belief. Romans 4:3 says What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Believing can't just be something we say, it is something we do. Abraham believed through his actions, even when it didn't make sense. (Remember when God asked him to sacrifice his long-awaited for son, Isaac???)

This begs the question - how does a person get this kind of faith? Beth gives us 5 pointers:
1. Because faith is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23 KJV), we are given the gift of faith when we allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must be yielded to His authority. In the NIV the term faithfulness is used, which can be described as serving and obeying God. So, to get faith, we should be yielded to the Spirit and obey the Lord.
2. Our faith is built by hearing the Word of God. This builds relationship with Him, thus making it 'easier' to trust Him. Come on, people, let's read it!
3. We can simply ask God to increase our faith (John 14:14).
4. Scripture (Mark 9:14-25) tells us that we need to confess our unbelief. If we can't be honest with God about those times we struggle in faith, who can we trust? Pour it out to Him, and ask Him to change it.
5. We can GROW in our faith. As with every ability, practice makes perfect (well, we'll never truly be perfect this side of Heaven, but you get what I mean). Psalm 37:3 tells us to feed on God's faithfulness. In other words, watch for those times where He's provided, record them, and read them to remind yourself (and your children) of who God is in your life. The more you see God's work in your life, the more you will believe Him - the greater your faith will grow.

I can't wait to share more with you, in hopes that the synopsis you read here will encourage you to pick up the study and learn it directly from Beth! There are so many ways to participate - you can do the DVD series with the study guide, you can read the book, you can listen to the audio series, you can do the online study... Whichever you choose, I suggest you do it with other women (if you don't have anyone around to work through the study with, the online study is a great option for you - there's a whole community on there!). It's important to have someone to discuss some of the concepts with, someone to keep you going when you want to give up, someone to pray for you, someone to pray for. Us girls, we need each other!