The Nature of Faith

 Faith is something every Christian needs.  What is it exactly?  Well, the Bible tells us.

It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22, 23).

It is the work of God  - "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He sent" (John 6:29). God wants us to have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ Whom He sent into this world.

1 John 3:23 - "And this is His commandment"  that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment"

It is God's gift - "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

It comes from the heart - "...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (romans 10:9, 10).

It is the substance of unseen things - "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Romans 8:24 - "For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?"

Faith is believing that what hasn't happened as yet will happen.  There is the saying, "Seeing is believing".  That's not faith. Faith is "Not seeing but still believing".  We believe that we will receive the thing we have prayed for--hoped for before it happens. 

Faith is believing that Jesus Christ is coming again.  And when He does, it will no longer be hope (faith) because what we have hoped for, had faith in has happened.  We will see Jesus.  Hope is no longer hope when you can see it.