I’ve been thinking about the basics of how we live our lives and how important the simple yet obvious things we choose to do every day are, like the basics of eating well, drinking enough water, exercising, taking care of our inner and outer health, prioritising relationships and spending time with Jesus. They seem basic, but basics undergird our life and give us a firm foundation to build everything else. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Another example of doing the basics well is how elite sportsmen and women perform the same daily drills, exercises and training, month after month and year after year. They seek to become masters of the basics of their game.
They know if they don’t keep practicing and on top of the basics, they will get out of practice sloppy and not be ready when opportunities come. The sporting world's greats continue practicing and becoming masters of the fundamentals until the end of their sporting careers.
The same can be said of faith and a relationship with God. We are to be masters of the basics of the faith. To consistently do those things that we know to do that grow and develop our relationship; that causes us to remain strong, and which keeps us alert to enemy attack and ready to make the most of every opportunity at any given moment.
We practice and continue to be people who have mastered the basics of faith right until the end game… if we don’t, we can miss out on an opportunity because we aren’t “game ready”, or we get caught out and unprepared when the enemy attacks. If we don’t keep our skills and faith muscles honed and strengthened, we can get “flabby” in our faith, walk with God, and let the “team” and ourselves down.
Unlike elite people at a sport where some are better or more gifted than others, our faith doesn’t work like that. When we ask Jesus to be part of our lives, we receive a measure of the same faith that created the universe. What happens to our measure after that is up to us because we choose every day whether we will strengthen and feed our faith to be one that can literally “move mountains “as we spend time with Jesus and read and follow His Word, which develops our faith, or we live like those who don’t know Him, but with a ticket to heaven after we die.
THINK ABOUT IT. When the pressure is on, we have something on the inside of us that will move mountains, open blind eyes, override the natural order of things and bring answers to our prayers. The same faith created all we can see, and we have a piece of that dynamic, creative power inside us.
It ‘s why Jesus said that the faith of a mustard seed will move mountains.
Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” (Matthew 17:20 NLT)
This faith stuff is dynamite, and we have a measure of the same faith that created the heavens and the earth right now on the inside of our spirit. Right here, right now.
Today don’t underestimate what your faith in God can and will do when you activate it. It’s the same faith in which Jesus and men and women of faith throughout the bible and history operated. The same faith turns water into wine, multiplies food, opens blind eyes, unstops deaf ears, heals the lame and the leper, and raises people from the dead.
Within us is the measure of the faith of God, who, in His spoken Word, created the universe from nothing and transformed impossible situations into possibilities. The question is, what will you do with your measure today?
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Hebrews 11:1-3 NIV)
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:22-23)
Prayer: Lord, I’m taking my measure of faith and putting it to use today to believe for solutions to the situations I face and to be the answer to someone else’s prayers. Thank you that within me is God's kind of faith. In Jesus name Amen.