Grace Thoughts
Teaching Notes: On Why Christians Have Difficulty Living By Faith – Part 4
Teaching Notes are Bible studies we taught before GraceLife Ministries began publishing articles online in 1995. Some were presented as sermons, others as group studies.
Our hope is that these older studies will be a blessing to you in your life and ministry. Please use them in any way God leads you.
These teaching notes are from a series of broadcast studies about faith.
[These notes are from a radio broadcast study taught more than 40 years ago.]
In previous broadcasts we’ve looked at living by faith. I mentioned that there are basically four reasons why Christians don’t live by faith.
- Fear
- Worry
- Pride
- Few people think about it
When someone asks why they can’t seem to trust God and live by faith or why they fear God in certain situations, I often ask them about their relationship to their father as they were growing up. In most cases, people who had problems with trusting their father as children also had problems trusting God. Some people look at God in similar ways to how they looked to their fathers.
Christians raised in homes where the father was consistent in his walk with God and lived up to his promises usually had little problem living by faith. However, Christians raised in homes where the father was inconsistent in his walk with God and often did not live up to his promises often had problems living by faith. Trust is act of habit and experience. After we were born we either learned the habit of trust or distrust.
What was your relationship with your father when you were growing up? Did he instill in you an ability and habit of trusting or did you grow up having difficulty trusting? If your answer is that you had trouble trusting during your growing up years, you may have discovered one reason why you struggle living by faith now.
So, what now? What do you do if that’s what you discovered? You need to work on the habit of trust. Begin developing projects that take a definite step of faith to accomplish and don’t do it alone. Talk with your husband or wife, your pastor or a close friend whose walk with God you respect. Share with them your struggle and ask for their help as you change the spiritual habit of trust.
The “faith life” needs to be continual – like a good habit.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17
[Thank you for reading these teaching notes from more than 40 years ago. My prayer is they will be a blessing to you and your ministry.]
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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
