Jun P. Espina 2 min read
Updated on October 21st, 2022
Covered by a huge bougainvillea, my electric meter was inaccessible for around two years; yet my electric bills reached into my pocket like clockwork. No complaint from the “electric company.” That’s FAITH! Remove it and society will crumble in an instant. That’s what God wants of us too, spiritually: To BELIEVE, for FAITH pleases Him! Thomas’ confession that Christ is “My Lord and my God!,” although true, didn’t impress Jesus much: “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who DID NOT SEE, and yet BELIEVED.” (John 20:28-29)
To Believe in Christ Is a Far-reaching Type of Faith
To believe, from the above context, was Thomas’ proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and God. It is rather more than your trust and confidence in the taxi driver’s skill to drive you to your destination safely. It is even more than my “bougainvillea story.” To believe in Christ as your God, who is the Owner of your soul and eternal life, is a far-reaching type of faith.
To Believe Means to Feel Safe
To believe in Christ or your taxi driver, however, expresses the same idea. It is about your feeling of safety. In the above story, I paid my electric bills, asking no questions. I believed in the company’s system. Even though the meter reader didn’t bother recording my actual electric bill, I didn’t experience any tension. I felt safe; I had a trusting relationship with the company.
Christ Asks Us to Believe in Him
We are all sinners, and our heavenly Father requires perfect righteousness if we are to spend eternity with Him.
The good news is Christ’s condescension. (cf. Phil. 6-8) He was God who became Man like us so He could offer His sinless life as a sin-offering to the Father in heaven who was offended by our sins.
You will be forgiven of all your sins if you trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, and God the Son. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
Believe in Christ and Accept Him as Your Eternal Savior
There is a feeling of safety in Christ. But you need to believe in Him and trust in His words. To Martha, Christ said: “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)
It is not “to see is to believe,” but “to believe is to see.”
Verses Related to Faith
Click to show/hide Verses Related to Faith
Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Acts 6:5:
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
Matthew 8:26:
And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
Matthew 14:29-31:
He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Acts 11:22-24:
The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
1 Corinthians 13:2:
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 16:13:
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
2 Corinthians 5:6-7:
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Ephesians 6:16 (KJV):
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Matthew 17:20:
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Luke 12:27-28:
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
Acts 14:9-10:
He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.
Acts 15:8-9:
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Acts 20:18-21:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 9:22:
Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.
Matthew 15:28:
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Matthew 21:21-22:
And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Mark 10:52:
And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Romans 1:16-17:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
2 Corinthians 4:13-14:
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
