Where Does Faith Come From?

“Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”  Hebrews 12:2

To surrender our lives to God, we have to have faith. We must have the faith to believe not only that God is Who He says He is, but that He raised Jesus from the dead, and in Him we have eternal life. Faith is not something we can muster up in our own hearts and lives. The Bible tells us that faith has a source, and it isn’t us.

Hebrews 12 says that Jesus is the author of our faith. In 2 Peter 1:1 we read, “To those who have been allotted faith equally precious as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We are allotted faith in Jesus. It is given to us by God. The very faith necessary to believe God is also provided by the grace of God to all who will receive it.

This faith came from the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”Let’s say you are wearing a gold ring. To you it is just a ring made of metal. But then someone explains to you why gold is valuable. It’s exceedingly rare and hard to mine. Then it must be purified, which is a painstaking process. Gold is malleable into shapes like a ring. It is long lasting. The metal itself cannot be made artificially. As you hear more and more about the ring, the value of it increases in your mind. Before you heard about gold, you had just a ring. Now that you have an understanding of what gold is, you know the ring’s value.

So it is with faith. As you read the Word of God, and you understand Who Christ is, and what believing in Him does for you, the value of the relationship grows. The better you know Jesus, the more valuable and more precious He becomes to you and to your life. The faith you have in Him grows because He provides it, through His Word, as you know Him more and more.

Jesus, thank You for giving me the faith to believe You, and the faith to know You more and more each day. Thank you for allowing me to understand more about You as I read and study Your Word. May I use Your gift of faith to share Who You are with my family and friends. I ask You to also provide them with the faith to know You, so that they may have a relationship with You too. In Your name I pray, amen