There is a vast difference between a struggling faith (Mk. 9:24)…and (a) stubborn unbelief (Mk. 3:3-6).
Jesus’ Healing Ministry, Tabletalk, April, 2008. Used by Permission.
Knowledge provides the illusion of certainty, which then becomes a poor substitute for the more vital confidence of faith.
Luke – Exegetical Commentary, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 2011, p. 31.
Looking for indubitable proof kills faith. The most important facts of life cannot be proven.
Luke – Exegetical Commentary, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 2011, p. 809-810.
It is better to fail in an attempt to exercise faith than to let it lie dormant and fruitless. God never belittles those who attempt to follow Him, but He does chasten those who refuse to attempt anything for Him.
Taken from James by Kent Hughes, copyright 1991, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 259, www.crosswaybooks.org.
But too often it has been overlooked that the opposite of sin is not virtue, not by any manner of means. This is in part a pagan view which is content with a merely human measure and properly does not know what sin is, that all sin is before God. No, the opposite of sin is faith, as is affirmed in Rom. 14:23, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.
A Grief Observed.
Demanding sensational proof is not evidence of faith but of doubt. To long for the visible sign, the big miracle, the dramatic proof is nothing but masked unbelief. It is the farthest thing from faith.
The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 94.
We do not believe in belief any more than we have faith in faith. We believe the gospel, and we have faith in Christ. Our beliefs have substance and our faith has an object.
The Conviction to Lead, 2012, Bethany House Publishers, p. 22, Used by Permission. Get this book!
The obvious is sometimes worth saying, namely, that our futures lie out ahead of us, in the future, not behind us. Out there in the unfamiliar, the demanding, not back in the safe and the predictable. Out there – in the promises of God calling for our faith.
Blog Post: Not in the Shire, December 13, 2010, Used by Permission
To really make a difference, to really receive the abundant life promised to us, to really be used by God in the world, we need to take radical steps of faith every day. Ask yourself, where does your faith (to the point it stretches you) differ from an unbeliever? We are far too easily pleased with lesser joys! Do we have the faith to leave the kiddy pool and move out into deeper waters? Do we have the faith to expect great things from God? Often we are often not given the details and there are often hardships along the way, but the life of faith is the life that marks God’s children.
Sermon, A New Start, Again, Genesis 12, June 2, 2013.
