Fads and Facts About Faith – Today’s Family Devotion

Fads and Facts About Faith

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Bible Reading: Romans 10:9-10, 17
Faith comes from listening to this message of good news—the Good News about Christ. Romans 10:17Welcome to the imaginary—yet entertaining—Carnival of Faith.
A guy in a shiny suit holds up a jar of slime as he waves you over. “Ladies and gentlemen, is your faith weak? Is it hard for you to trust God? Do you ever wonder if he really knows what’s best for you? Well, your doubting days are over. Introducing Faith-amins, the vitamin guaranteed to fire up your faith.”The next guy offers you a plate of what looks like twigs and bark. “Eat right, be­lieve right-it’s as simple as that, folks. That’s what the Faith-Builder Diet is all about. Attend our weekly meetings, eat from our special Faith-Builder menu, then watch your unwanted distrust and disbelief disappear.”

A woman in another booth leaps around in neon Lycra. “Hey, get over here!” she barks. “That’s right, you with the puny faith muscles. You have flab where you should have faith because you don’t work out. Twenty minutes a day on my patented Faith-asizer will make your faith amazingly strong.”

Guess what? We can’t get faith in a bottle. We can’t hide faith in a tuna fish cas­serole. We can’t even firm up our faith with one of those weird exercise machines collecting cobwebs in the basement. Faith means believing God. It isn’t just knowing Bible facts in our head but trusting God with everything in life.

We can’t get along without trusting God day to day: “It is impossible to please God without faith,” says Hebrews 11:6. Jesus praised people with “great faith” (Mat­thew 8:10, nasb) and scolded people with “little faith” (Luke 12:28, nasb). He promised that even mustard-seed-sized faith can move mountains (see Matthew 17:20). No wonder his disciples said to him, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it” (Luke 17:5).

That’s the important question! How do we get more faith? Our spiritual life would be trouble-free if there were a special pill or plan that would increase our faith. But that’s not where faith comes from. That’s why the Bible says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17, Niv).

The more we dig into the Bible-reading, studying, memorizing-the more we know about God. And the more we know about God, the more sure we will be that he’s worth trusting with our whole life!

TALK: God gave you the Bible so you can know him. How are you making the most of God’s Word to get to know him better?

PRAY: God, help us to use your Word, the Bible, to get to know you and build our trust in you.

ACT: Talk to a friend today about how you can get to know God better—together.