God requires faith for salvation, but faith is not a meritorious work. Salvation is by the power of God in response to faith, faith itself is God’s work, divinely initiated and divinely accomplished.
Taken from Philippians, Moody Publishers, Copyright 2001, p. 26. Used by Permission.
Some of you seek for faith much in the same way as you would dig for a well. You turn the eye inward upon yourself and search admidst the depths of your polluted heart to find if faith is there; you search admid all your feelings at sermons and sacraments to see if faith is there; and still you find nothing but sin and disappointment… Look full in the face of Jesus… Drink in His Word… Faith comes by hearing the voice of Jesus.
Comfort in Sorrow, Christian Focus, 2002, p. 89-90, Used by Permission.
The following guidelines will help a believer build his faith:
1. Carefully read through the Word and meditate on it. Through reading the Word of God, and especially through meditation on it, the believer becomes acquainted with the nature and character or God.
2. We must maintain an upright heart and a good conscience and not knowingly and habitually indulge in the things which are contrary to the mind of God.
3. We should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried. The more I am in a position to be tried in faith, the more I will have the opportunity of seeing God’s help and deliverance.
4. Let God work deliverance for us and do not work deliverance on our own.
Excerpted from: The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 158-159. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian bookstores everywhere. Get this book!
We should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried. The more I am in a position to be tried in faith, the more I will have the opportunity of seeing God’s help and deliverance. Every fresh instance in which He helps and delivers me will increase my faith. The believer should not shrink from situations, positions, or circumstances in which his faith may be tried, but he should cheerfully embrace them as opportunities to see the hand of God stretched out in help and deliverance. Thus his faith will be strengthened.
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 159. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian bookstores everywhere. Get this book!
Faith is sustained by looking at Christ, crucified and risen, not by turning from Christ to analyze your faith… Paradoxically, if we would experience the joy of faith, we must not focus much on it. We must focus on the greatness of our Savior.
Waiting in Darkness taken from When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper, 2006, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 41.
Believing is a matter of the will. A man does not believe without being willing to believe.
