When faith isn't enough

Faith, as defined as confidence or trust, is something that at some point in every Christian's life doesn't feel like enough.

There are times when Christians are very aware of their sinfulness and realize that they are not good enough. Times when we feel like David when he expressed in Psalm 51:3, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Times when we wonder if we've done enough, and then we realize that there is no way that we can do enough.

We are lost and in need of a savior. We do our best to do what we can and are prideful. We don't want to admit that we have nothing to do with our salvation. We cannot save ourselves or help with that salvation in any way.

We try to have faith (trust) in God, but we come up short. We try to pray words from our own hearts, to listen to what God says without reading what He did say. We base our faith on our own cultural presuppositions instead of on what God tells us in the Bible.

This exercise drives us further and further away from grace. Further and further away from Him who gives it.

We're left feeling poorly about ourselves. We want to either give up or work harder to feel better about ourselves.

We are left wallowing around in our sin.

And our faith is not enough.

The problem here is that we're looking for this faith in ourselves instead of in He who is faithful.

Where do we get our faith?

Check out Romans 10:17, which says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

Ahh! Faith come from hearing the word of Christ! The words of Christ are not something that we can pull out from within us. (Remember, we are dead in our sin.) The words of Christ can be found in the Bible!

So when our faith (trust) in God is not strong enough, we can't pull it out from within ourselves! You can't pull out what you don't have!

Instead, praying the prayers that God gave us in the Bible (the Psalms) or praying prayers that are written by faithful Christians and are based upon the words in the Bible can strengthen us, and the Word creates faith!

And this faith is not a trust in ourselves or what we have done! It is a trust in what Christ accomplished all on His own on our behalf.

So when our faith is not strong enough (and when is it ever?), we hold tight to the promise that we are forgiven of our sins, we are forgiven of our lack of faith.

As 1 John 1:8-9 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

So we come to Christ knowing that we are sinful and take comfort in the words found in the Bible that we are cleansed from our sin.

Being cleansed should remind us of our baptism where we are cleansed from our sin! As 1 Peter 3:21 tells us that baptism saves us!

So when our faith isn't enough, we hold on to the promise that we are forgiven people of God who have been washed in the baptism of Christ. We are forgiven of our unbelief and can hold tight onto the promise that Christ's victory over death is enough. Enough for my sins. Enough for your sins. He covers us with his righteousness.

Now we can be set free! We are no longer bound to ourselves because it's not about us!

It's about what Christ did for us on the cross. Pure and simple.

I am saved because of what Christ did for me!