The Only Answer Is Prayer Campione

I Know Whom I Have Believed When you have faith, you believe God and trust Him wholeheartedly. By believing Him, you position yourself to receive everything He wants to give you, and through your faith-filled prayers, you can help others to receive God’s best, as well. You are not born with mature faith in God. Faith takes years to grow, and it only grows as you relate to Him in your words (prayer) and actions (obedience). Repent when He shows you something that has displeased Him. Submit yourself to His fine-tuning so that you do not start putting your faith in something besides the Lord Himself. Some people make the mistake of putting their faith in their faith, instead of in God. Others (probably all of us) put their faith in themselves or in a leader or in a particular set of actions. When you find that you have placed your faith in something or someone besides God Himself, ask Him to help you get back on track. Just as Jesus discipled His first disciples, He will disciple you. Even though the twelve disciples left their homes and their livelihoods to follow Jesus, and even though they walked with Jesus every day and watched Him perform miracles, their faith needed to be enlarged. They were not halfhearted disciples. These men had witnessed the miracle at the wedding when Jesus turned the water into fine wine. They had been beside Him when He healed the blind man and the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda. They had even had front-row seats at the feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness. And yet they still had limited expectations. When the storm came up on the sea, they were afraid. What did Jesus ask them then? “Where is your faith?” When Jesus cursed the fig tree, they were astonished to see it dead. What did Jesus tell them? “Have faith in Me.” In some ways, they were like the figless fig tree; just as the tree appeared to have figs, so they appeared to have faith, but their reactions said otherwise. Jesus, knowing all things, could have told His mystified disciples, “You see, I have complete authority, and when I speak to creation, it has to respond,” but He did not elaborate. He simply said, “Have faith in God.”