Characteristics of faith

Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

Faith is a yes or no proposition, yet faith can grow or shrink over time.

Either you have faith or you don’t. That seems pretty clear. Life has many absolutes. Either you’re alive or you’re dead. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not. Electrical current is either on or off. There are courses of study that are graded as pass or fail.

Either you believe in Christ as your Savior or you don’t. There’s no middle ground. Jesus said, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:16, 18).

Faith in Christ is all-important. If you reject Him, you reject the forgiveness that He died on the cross to win for you. If you reject Him, you reject access to heaven because Jesus says I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Without faith in Jesus, life is pointless and death is the ultimate tragedy. With faith in Christ, life has meaning—you know that you have value as a child of God, and you have purpose in sharing His love with others. With faith in Christ, death is still a sad time of parting, but the grief of separation is eased by the hope of a future reunion in God’s eternal kingdom.

This faith should not be taken for granted. Faith can fluctuate over the passage of years. The Spirit of God plants faith in our hearts like a seed. That seed will grow if properly tended, or wither and die if left neglected. Faith grows in response to the word of God; faith is nourished by participating in worship and Bible study. Faith starves when church life is ignored and the Bible remains closed on a shelf; starve it enough and faith will eventually fall over dead. But even those with strong faith experience times of doubt and uncertainty; this is why we need the Holy Spirit’s strengthening presence in our hearts. The Spirit is our gardener from above, who is committed to keeping our faith strong and healthy. He planted it, and He wants to see it bear fruit in God’s eternal garden.