Hot-Water Faith

Someone has said that Christians are a lot like teabags. You don’t know what they’re made of until you put them into hot water.

Maybe you’re in the hot water of temptation or testing right now, and you’re saying, “This is trying my faith. I don’t know if I can get through this. In fact, I’m starting to lose my faith.”

James 1:2–4 tells us, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (NLT).

Also, if you’re thinking about what the Scriptures say, it can strengthen and build your faith. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ” (NLT). In other words, we get faith by reading and understanding the Word of God.

The more we read the Bible, the stronger our faith can become. So we want to be looking into the Word of God.

Hebrews 11:6 says that “it is impossible to please God without faith” (NLT). What God did in the lives of people years ago, He can still do in the lives of people today. God wants to work in your life. He wants to work in your home. He wants to work in your sphere of influence. God wants to do something fresh in our generation. So we need to apply faith.

However, the faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. The faith we need grows stronger through testing. So if you have a real faith in God, your faith will grow stronger through adversity and difficulty, not weaker.