I seldom have heard a better definition of faith than that given in one of our meetings, by a sweet, elderly black woman, as she answered a young man who asked, “How do I obtain the Lor d’s help for my needs?”

In her characteristic way, pointi ng her finger toward him, she said with great insistence, “You just have to believe that He’s done it and it’s done.”

The greatest problem with most of us is, after asking Him to do it, we do not belie ve it is done. Instead, we keep trying to help Him, get others to help Him, and anxiously wait to see how He is going to work.

Faith adds its “Amen” to God’ s “Yes” and then takes its hands off, leaving God to finish His work. The language of faith is, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this” (Psalm 37:5). DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH

I simply take Him at His wor d, I praise Him that my prayer is hear d, And claim my answer fr om the Lor d; I take, He undertakes.

Active faith gives thanks for a promise even though it is not yet performed, know ing that God’ s contracts are as good as cash. MATTHEW HENR Y

Passive faith accepts the W ord as true— But never moves.

Active faith begins the work to do, And ther eby pr oves.

Passive faith says, “I believe it! every wor d of God is true. Well I know He has not spoken what He cannot, will not, do. He has instructed me, ‘Go forwar d!’ but a closed-up way I see, When the waters ar e divided, soon in Canaan’ s land I’ll be.

Lo! I hear His voice command ing, ‘Rise and walk: take up your bed’; And, ‘Stretch to Me your wither ed hand!’ which for so long has been dead.

When I am a little str onger , then, I know I’ll sur ely stand: When there comes a thrill of healing, I will use with ease my reclaimed hand.

Yes, I know that ‘God is able’ and full willing all to do: I believe that every pr omise, sometime, will to me come true.”

Active faith says, “I believe it! and the pr omise now I take, Knowing well, as I r eceive it, God, each pr omise, r eal will make.

So I step into the waters, finding ther e an open way; Onwar d press, the land possessing; nothing can my pr ogress stay .

Yes, I rise at His commanding, walking straight, and joyfully: This, my hand so sadly shriveled, as I r each, r estor ed will be.

What beyond His faithful pr omise, would I wish or do I need? Looking not for ‘signs or wonders,’ I’ll no contradiction heed.

Well I know that ‘God is able,’ and full willing all to do: I believe that every pr omise, at this moment can come true.”

Passive faith but praises in the light, When sun does shine.

Active faith will praise in darkest night— Which faith is thine?

SELECTED

Dear Christian, remember to take good care of your faith, for faith is the only way to obtain God’s blessings. Prayer alone cannot bring answers down from His throne, because it is the earnest prayer of one who believes that leads to answers.

Faith is the communication link between heaven and earth. It is on this link of faith that God’s messages of love travel so quickly that even before we ask, He answers. And while we are still speaking, “he hears us” (1 John 5:14). So when the connection of faith is broken, how will we obtain His promises?

Am I in trouble? I can receive help by expressing faith. Am I being battered by the Enemy? My soul will find refuge by leaning in faith upon God. But without faith, I call to Him in vain, for faith is the only road between my soul and heaven. If the road is blocked, how can I communicate with the great King?

Faith links me to Holy God and clothes me with the power of Jehovah. Faith ensures me that each of His attributes will be used in my defense, helping me to defy the hosts of hell. It causes me to march triumphantly over the necks of my enemies. So without faith, how can I receive anything from the Lord?

Therefore, O Christian, carefully watch your faith. “Everything is possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23). CHARLES H. SPURGEON

We as a people take such pride in being so practical that we want something more sure than faith. Yet Paul said, “The promise comes by FAITH, so that it may . . . be GUARANTEED” (Romans 4:16). DANIEL CRAWFORD

Faith honors God, and God honors faith.

Who can help but admire those brave Levites! They carried the ark of the covenant right into the water, for the river was not divided until “their feet touched the water’s edge” (v. 15). God had promised nothing else.

God honors faith—stubborn faith—that sees His PROMISE and looks to that alone. We can only imagine how bystanders today, watching these holy men of God march on, would say, “You will never catch me running that risk! The ark will be swept away!” Yet “the priests . . . stood on dry ground” (v. 17). We must not overlook the fact that faith on our part helps God to carry out His plans. Be willing to come to the help of the Lord.

The ark of the covenant was equipped with poles so the priests could raise it to their shoulders. So even the ark of God did not move itself but was carried. When God is the architect, men are the bricklayers and laborers. Faith assists God. It can shut the mouths of lions and quench the most destructive fire. Faith still honors God, and God honors faith. Oh, for the kind of faith that will move ahead, leaving God to fulfill His promise when He sees fit! Fellow Levites, let us shoulder our load, without looking as though we were carrying God’s coffin. It is the ark of the living God! Sing as you march toward the flood! THOMAS CHAMPNESS

One of the distinguishing marks of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church was the spirit of boldness. One of the great essential qualities of the kind of faith that will attempt great things for God and expect great things from God is holy boldness and daring. When dealing with a supernatural Being and taking things from Him that are humanly impossible, it is actually easier for us to take a lot than it is to take a little.

And it is easier to stand in a place of bold trust than in a place where we cautiously and timidly cling to the shore.

Likewise sailors living a life of faith, let us launch our ships into the deep. We will find that all things are “possible with God” (Luke 18:27), and “everything is possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23).

Today let us attempt great things for God, taking His faith to believe great things and taking His strength to accomplish them! DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH

Prayer takes the people to the Bank of Faith, and obtains the golden blessing. Mind how you pray! Pray! Make real business of it! Never let it be a dead formality! People pray a long time but do not get what they are supposed to ask for because they do not plead the promise in a truthful businesslike way. If you were to go into a bank and stand an hour talking to the clerk, and then come out again without your cash, what would be the good of it? CHARLES H. SPURGEON

Have you ever given God the chance to answer the Prayer of Faith? Do not let us lose our last chance of believing by waiting till the dawn has broken into day! LILIAS TROTTER

If radio’s slim finger can pluck a melody From night, and toss it over a continent or sea; If the petaled white notes of a violin Are blown across a mountain or a city’s din; If songs, like crimson roses, are culled from thin blue air— Why should mortals wonder if God hears prayer? ETHEL ROMIG FULLER

When all things can be accomplished by prayer, why not yield to the test? Why not pray on? And through?

The “everything” mentioned here does not always come simply by asking, because God is always seeking to teach you the way of faith. Your training for a life of faith requires many areas of learning, including the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, and the courage of faith. Often you will pass through many stages before you finally realize the result of faith—namely, the victory of faith.

Genuine moral fiber is developed by enduring the discipline of faith.

When you have made your request to God, and the answer still has not come, what are you to do? Keep on believing His Word! Never be swayed from it by what you may see or feel. Then as you stand firm, your power and experience is being developed, strengthened, and deepened. When you remain unswayed from your stance of faith, even in view of supposed contradictions to God’s Word, you grow stronger on every front.

God will often purposely delay in giving you His answer, and in fact the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes. He worked this way in the lives of all the great Bible characters. Abraham, Moses, and Elijah were not great in the beginning but made great through the discipline of their faith. Only through that discipline were they then equipped for the work to which God had called them.

Think, for example, of Joseph, whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt. Psalm 105:19 (KJV) says, “The word of the LORD tried him.” It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that “tried him” but “the word of the LORD.” The words God spoke into his heart in his early years, concerning his elevated place of honor above his brothers, were the words that were always before him. He remained alone in prison, in spite of his innocence, and watched others being released who were justly incarcerated. Yet he remembered God’s words even when every step of his career made fulfillment seem more and more impossible.

These were the times that tried his soul, but they were also the times of his spiritual growth and development. Then when word of his release from prison finally came, he was found ready and equipped for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brothers. And he was able to do so with a love and a patience only surpassed by God Himself.

No amount of persecution will try you as much as experiences like these—ones in which you are required to wait on God. Once He has spoken His promise to work, it is truly hard to wait as you see the days go by with no fulfillment. Yet it is this discipline of faith that will bring you into a knowledge of God that would otherwise be impossible.

Our unbelief is the greatest hindrance in our way; in fact, there is no other real difficulty as to our spiritual progress and prosperity. The Lord can do everything; but when He makes a rule that according to our faith so shall it be unto us, our unbelief ties the hands of His omnipotence.

Yes, the confederacies of evil shall be scattered if we can but believe. Despised truth shall lift its head if we will but have confidence in the God of truth. We can bear our load of trouble or pass uninjured through the waves of distress if we can gird our loins with the girdle of peace, that girdle which is buckled on by the hands of trust.

What can we not believe? Is everything possible except believing in God? Yet He is always true; why do we not believe in Him? He is always faithful to His word; why can we not trust Him? When we are in a right state of heart, faith costs no effort: it is then as natural for us to rely upon God as for a child to trust his father.

The worst of it is that we can believe God about everything except the present pressing trial. This is folly. Come, my soul, shake off such sinfulness, and trust thy God with the load, the labor, the longing of this present. This done, all is done.

Being not weak in faith, [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb; he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?—If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.—Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?—Behold the fowls of the air; . . . your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they?—Why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not . . . remember the five loaves of the five thousand?

My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

By his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him.

Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Lord, increase our faith.