How does the Bible define “faith”? If we look at the people to whom Jesus said the words “your faith has healed you”, we can see that they all put in a lot of effort to come to Jesus, even in extreme circumstances – whether by making way through a large crowd just to touch Jesus’ cloak, or by digging through the roof so that they can lower their paralysed body in front of Jesus.
As such, the starting point of “faith” is to seek and place our trust in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we can please God with our faith when we come to him and seek him. Romans 3:9 onwards emphasises how we are all sinners, then specifically mentions “not seeking God” as a characteristic of such sinners.
In the well-known parable of the prodigal son, the prodigal son lives a life of indulgence, then loses everything and is reduced to a state where he longs to eat the pods that pigs are eating. But there was one thing that he did well. He didn’t just linger in his regret – he had the courage to go back to his father. And when he did so, his father (God) ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. His father clothed him in the best robe, killed the fattened calf for him and restored him to his position as his son. We must seek God in this way, even when we are weak, and even when we have failed.
When we seek God, he gives us grace, recovery, healing and power. That allows us to live in accordance with God’s will. That helps us get rid of the sin and idols in our lives.
So the starting point of our faith is to seek God; the end point is to obey all of his words. That is called becoming more holy. Holiness starts with worship seeking for God, and ends with obeying his word.
Jesus said “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened”. The first thing is to come to Jesus. Jesus then said to “take my yoke upon you and learn from me” (Matthew 11:28-29), which refers to the need to learn and obey his word. Once we have come to our Lord, we can learn from him through his humble, gentle spirit. We can do so by being strengthened through his unending grace which accepts, understands and loves us.
This message is repeated in the parable of the vine and its branches, where Jesus said “remain in me, and I will remain in you”. Then Jesus gave us the command to “love each other as I have loved you”, in the same way that he remained in God’s love by obeying his commands (John 15:9-17). The second thing he emphasised was obedience.
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7)
“He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands.” (2 Chronicles 14:4)
