F.R.O.G. (Faith)

On my last post I wrote about ushering in Christ into our heart and lives. I spoke about the parade and how I watched people ushering in Santa Claus into their lives for the holiday season and how we should do that, and more, to usher in Christ. I gave you an acronym for it and called it F.R.O.G. Faith, Repentance, Obedience, and Gratitude. I am going to break down these four areas on this post and the following three. It is that important and it is good for us to hear over and over again. The first letter if F so we will begin with faith. I have written about faith before but God reveals more and more to me as I grow. So some of this you will have heard before and some of this will be new.
The basic premise behind faith is trust. Faith is the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Notice that does not in itself make the statement true. You just believe it to be true. There is a good or proper faith and then there is bad or improper faith. Faith in what is false and faith in what is truth. Both are faith, but one is saving faith and the other leads to wickedness and hell. Faith alone does not save us from an eternal hell. It must be a faith that believes that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus the son. It must be a faith that believes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It must be a faith that believes that not by works can anyone enter into the kingdom but by the works of Christ Jesus and Him paying our penalty on the cross can we have eternal life. One could have all the faith in the world that if he does enough good deeds or just takes communion once a month that he will go to heaven. But that kind of faith will send you to hell. No matter how much you believe it is true it does not make it true.
Blind faith can be a fatal mistake.
Faith must be directly accompanied with knowledge. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. If one did not know that that verse was in the Bible then they may believe that works can save them. So you can see that without knowledge, faith can be very dangerous and I believe that is why there are so many odd beliefs and faiths out there today. We have to test everything with the Word and if it does not line up then don’t put any faith in it. Romans 10:17 says So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
Now that we know the difference between good faith and bad faith, or at least how to identify it. Lets go a little further. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Once you have identified what you should have faith in, you need to grab hold of it and not let go. Believe in it like your life depends on it. It is our faith (in the right things) that shields us from the enemy’s darts. Ephesians 6:16
So if we want to start ushering in Christ we need to work on our knowledge of the word so we know what to believe and know what to have faith in.
FAITH IS THE VICTORY