A Brief Study on Faith.

Faith; we all have it, we all practice it everyday whether you're cranking your car or sitting in a chair, you have faith that what you're doing or working with will act as it should act. What is True Faith though? Through reading the Word we see that this True Faith is important. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says to, "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith," and later in Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please him." The answer comes to us from Romans 10:17, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." So True Faith is solely based on scripture; the Word of God.
Think back to when you were first saved. For some of us, myself included, our faith was motivated by a fear of hell. For others it was because of a realization of sin and an outlet to be freed from that. Whatever your motivation was for salvation your FAITH rested solely on Jesus Christ, His redeeming death, burial and resurrection. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Colossians 2:6. Just as our faith was solely resting on Jesus Christ when we were first saved, so it should continue to rest solely on him as we grow, mature, and are being transformed into His image.
Since we see now that True Faith is based solely on scripture we must be careful in this culture and world of ours not to be influenced by "impressions, probabilities, or what we think God is like." I had a professor in school who would always say, "A life of sight depends on self and circumstance, but a life of faith depends on God and His certain word," Mike Sullivan. So often times growing up I would go on a youth retreat, or to a Christian summer camp and come home so fired up for the Lord, but then a week or so would pass and I'd find myself right back where I was; the emotional high was gone. I was allowing my faith to be influenced by my emotions. There is nothing wrong with mountain top experiences don't get me wrong, but we should allow those experiences to point us back to the Word of God that we may be building lasting Biblical truth that never changes or wavers.
Lastly as we begin to count on scripture as our source of faith, we see that the Lord, through His Spirit, begins to build us up in that faith. More often times than not that building up in faith is not an easy task. Have you ever noticed how much more you depend on the Lord when things go wrong? When you're at your wits end it is so easy to call upon the Lord for help, however when you are on cloud 9 and everything is going according to plan praising the Lord seems to often slip from our minds. Enter trials, obstacles, tribulations, defeats and failures; these things are soft soil for faith. James McConkey writes, "Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat; only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith.
I encourage you all to dig deep into the Word, that special revelation we have from the Lord Himself. Allow this to be your source of True Faith, and praise the Lord as we are continually being sanctified.