Genuine Faith

“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7, NLT).

What is genuine faith? Quite simply, it is faith that has been tested and tried. It’s easy to state, “I have faith” when all is well with you and your world, but are you able to hold onto that faith when you and your world are rocked and all hell breaks loose around you and within you? Genuine faith hangs on with strength in the knowledge that God is still there and still working on your behalf.

If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? In my own journey, if I had to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink, or a naïve faith that has never known the firing line of doubt, I will choose the former every time.

Are you wrestling with doubt today? Do you grapple within yourself about the evidence of God and His power? Be encouraged! Your faith is just under fire, and if you’ll commit to cling to faith, the fire will only serve to purify, fortify, and sanctify your life. The real question when it comes to faith is this: Genuine or naïve?

Pray with Me:

Father, thank you for the tests in my life, and for understanding my grappling, wrestling, and doubts in my faith. I recognize today that the tests are only in place to check my commitment and willingness to endure. As you give me opportunities to fortify my faith in you, help me embrace those opportunities and pass the tests. Amen.