Storms come and go. Some pass through with little impact, while others cause catastrophic damage. However, they will eventually pass, even when it seems they last forever. Life is like this. Life produces storms that cause us distress. Some pass with little effect, while others have a major impact that we carry for a lifetime. The storms in our lives don’t have to be negative. Uncomfortable, but useful. Storms of life can be opportunities for growth. When we are sailing through life and a storm blows in, we have a choice to make. We can allow fear to grab hold of us, or we can turn to the one person who can calm the storms.

The word gospel comes from the Old English word godspel, which means “god-story.” The English translators of the King James Bible used the word godspel as the translation for two Greek words found in the New Testament—euangelion, which means “good news,” and euangelizomai, which means “to proclaim the good news.” So naturally a story about God will point us to His righteousness. The righteousness of God. Righteousness is the quality or state of being morally right or justifiable. The concept is rooted in religious or divine law and broadly encompasses moral correctness, justice, and virtuous living as dictated by a higher authority or set of spiritual beliefs. God is righteous and we will see this as we read our Bible.

Faith always begins small. We don’t go all in right from the beginning. There will be reservations, especially in something new. But what about faith in something or someone we can’t see? The invisible? The things we can’t really understand and wrap our minds around. There’s a part of us that wants to believe that battles with the thought of how can I put trust in something with so little faith. However, every faith moment begins small. It takes time for faith to grow bigger. Just like a seed planted in soil, our small faith gets planted, watered, and cared for, and before we know it we have a small plant. As we continue to nurture our small plant, it grows into a bigger plant. Faith is like this, a seed gets planted, it gets watered, and it grows.

Faith is not a feeling - it is complete trust in God’s Word. Faith believes before it sees, obeys before it understands, and stands firm knowing God is faithful to keep every promise He has made. On the other hand, feelings are an emotional state or reaction. Faith does not necessarily produce an emotional state. If we spend time in the Psalms we will come to understand this. King David, considered a man after God’s own heart, wrote many of the Psalms. He doesn’t hold back his emotional state. Take, for example, Psalm 4. David starts this Psalm with these words, “Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” (v 1). These aren’t the words of someone who is feeling a positive emotion. David is distressed, and he is asking God to give him relief. 

Many times we equate feelings with faith. However, this isn’t an accurate expression of our faith. Faith doesn’t mean I’ll always feel my best. Faith means believing even when things are bad. Our faith is stronger when we are experiencing a tough situation. In our depression our faith is what gets us through to another day. In our anxiety our faith keeps us going. In our addiction our faith turns us toward Jesus. In his book Depression: Looking Up From The Stubborn Darkness, Edward T. Welch writes, “Feelings don’t define faith. Instead, faith is simply turning to the Lord” (Pg 46). When do we most likely turn to the Lord? In our depression, anxiety, addiction, and all other bad situations we might find ourselves in. Our despair, our tough situation where we turn to Jesus, this is what defines our faith.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1). Where is your faith? Is it in the world? Is it in God? Is your faith rooted in Jesus? Our faith is very important in life. No one goes through life without having faith. I am of the opinion that faith is simple. There isn’t really anything about it that is complicated. Faith is simply believing in something or someone we have never seen with our own eyes. If your can has started anytime for a year, is there faith in starting it? No, you already know that more than likely it will. You believe that when you go to start it, it’ll start. There is no faith in starting a reliable car. Faith really isn’t complicated. I said earlier that faith is important in our lives. No one, not even atheists, go through life without faith. 

Faith is very important in life. In fact, no one can exist without having faith in something. The question is where is our faith directed? Even Atheists believe in something? In fact it takes more faith to believe we are here by accident than it does to believe that all things have been created by God. What we believe is our choice. It's a decision everyone must make. Because of the important roll faith plays in our lives I think it fitting to start our topical studies with the subject of faith. Faith is a theme that runs through the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. Our faith guides us through the Scriptures as we seek to understand (as much as humanly possible) the Creator of all things. As we begin looking at into the topic of faith, search your thoughts, beliefs, actions, and life to determine where your faith is.