faith

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. – Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

There are so many promises in God’s word. Maybe there’s one that you’ve been standing on, but you just haven’t seen the results yet. And in your stand, you’ve found that it’s been easy to want to get tired and give up.

Waiting is one of the hardest things about faith. We want God’s promises to happen automatically in our lives. But sometimes, that isn’t the case. And so how do we keep faith when things seem to be so far from what we’d like to see in our lives?

One of the best ways to encourage yourself is to remember the things that God has done for you. Maybe there was the time when you discovered a Bible verse that really encouraged you. Or the prayer for more friends that God answered for you last year. Whatever it is, take some time to remember what God has done for you and thank Him. As you do that, it will cause your confidence in God’s ability to grow. It will cause faith to rise up in your heart and you’ll realize that you do have the courage to stand strong.

So if you’re in one of those times when your faith feels shaky, begin reminding yourself of the things God has done. Read Bible stories about how God came through for others and you’ll find yourself growing stronger in faith. Even if you don’t see the results yet, know that God will come through for you!

So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. – Romans 10:17 (NLT)

Have you ever listened to a song the first time and didn’t like it? But then maybe it kept being played on the radio or a friend really liked it and so you listened to it over and over again. After a few times of listening, the song that you didn’t really like stopped bugging you so much. Then, before you knew it, that song became one of your favorites. There’s power in listening to something time and time again.

The same is true with God’s word. Often we hear a scripture or verse one time and it’s easy to overlook it. But if we dig into it, and get it into our hearts, it can often become life-changing. It’s all about hearing it again and again.

There are truths in God’s word that can be overlooked if we just read them once quickly. However, if we dig beneath the surface, we can often find a life-changing truth. So today, take some time to get into God’s word. Pick a scripture and take a fresh look at it. Really think about what it is saying to you and how it can apply to your life. Faith comes as you hear God’s word over and over again!

What are you passionate about? Is it doing well in the school band? Making the basketball team? Getting your crush in math class to notice you? What is your passion?

When you answer that question, you can probably pinpoint where your focus is. When you’re passionate about something, you focus on it. If you’re passionate about making the basketball team, you spend time after school shooting baskets, lifting weights, and doing whatever it takes to get your body conditioned to make the team.

[Tweet “When you’re passionate about something, you focus on it – @studentdevos”]

The same is true in our spiritual lives. What we focus on is important.

But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. – Matthew 14:30 (NLT)

Peter began well. His focus was on Jesus and He stepped out in faith on what Jesus told him to do. However, Peter started changing his focus. He looked at the storm around him. He saw the waves. Then he did what any rational person would do, he began to fear.

In life, we often begin to look around us. We see all the reasons we can’t do what God is calling us to do. And just like Peter, our faith fails and we stop trusting God.

[Tweet “Faith fails when your focus becomes anything other than Jesus – @studentdevos”]

What we focus on, makes a big difference. If we focus on fear and all the reasons we can’t do something, we will always fail. However, Jesus encourages us to focus on Him.

When we change our focus to Jesus, we win every time. So today, choose to look at Jesus. Tune out the circumstances and the storm and keep your eyes on Jesus and you’ll see a victory in your life!

Today’s Challenge: Keep Your Focus On Jesus

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. – Hebrews 11:6

Have you ever felt like the thing God was telling you to do was really crazy? I remember a time when God spoke to me to give away all my birthday money. That was hard to do! I was trying to save up my money to buy a new drumset, and I was well on my way toward saving for it. And then God did something crazy! He told me to give all my money away.

Of course, I struggled with that idea. I didn’t want to be even farther away from my goal of getting my drumset. Yet, I knew that God loved me and I knew that He wouldn’t tell me to give away my money to be mean or keep me from getting the thing I wanted so badly.

So I took my birthday money to the church and put it in the offering. Man, that was hard!

And then I kind of forgot about it. I forgot all about the money and just went about doing the things I’d always done. One day, a lady at our church came up to me and gave me a check for the full amount of money I needed to buy my drums. I was so excited.

God had come through for me. I had trusted God with my money and God came through for me even when it seemed crazy.

That’s what faith is. Faith sees God as bigger than the facts. The facts might say that something isn’t possible. However, faith holds on to what God says above all else!

Today’s Challenge: Hold Onto What God says above all else

God cares about you. He loves you and He responds to those who seek Him. So today challenge yourself to believe God’s love. Believe He cares for you and about you. Trust Him and realize that your faith in Him will keep you going even if it seems bigger than the facts.

[Tweet “Faith holds onto what God says above all else – @studentdevos”]

So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. – Romans 10:17 (NLT)

I have a friend that has a puppy. When my friend got her dog he was so small and cute. I didn’t see the puppy for a month or two and when I did, I couldn’t believe the transformation. My friend’s dog was huge! He had really grown. With several months of feeding and good care, my friend’s dog had gotten big.

Like my friend’s puppy, when you feed something, it will grow.

When it comes to the things of God, we sometimes don’t take the time to feed them. Instead, we fill our lives up with friends, sports and video games. None of those things are bad, however, they don’t do anything to feed your faith. Just like a dog, your faith needs to be fed to grow.

Today’s Challenge: What will you do today to grow your faith?

If you want to do the things God is stirring in your heart to do, you’re going to have to begin to grow your faith. God isn’t going to call you to do something you can do by yourself. So it’s going to take faith to stick it out and see it through.

To grow your faith, you’ve got to spend time digging into God’s word. You might begin by watching some YouTube videos, reading devotions from our website, or downloading the Bible app. It doesn’t matter how you do it, what matters is that you’re making a conscious effort each day to grow your faith.

Determine today that you are going to spend time in God’s word and grow your faith!

If you’d like to grow in God, check out our awesome devotion, Every Teenager’s Guide to Growing in God. It will challenge you and help get you started growing closer to God.

When I was 12 years old, I took my first mission trip with my church. My youth group was going overseas to do some assemblies at schools to tell children about Jesus. Honestly, I was terrified. I felt a stirring in my heart that God was calling me to go, but I was scared.

I didn’t have the money to go and I knew my parents didn’t have any extra money to help me go either. If I was going, I had to do all my fundraising myself. Raising that much money felt pretty intimidating.

Even though I was afraid, I signed up for the trip. Then, I began raising money. God helped me each step of the way and I was able to raise all the funds I needed to go on the trip.

Isn’t it interesting, how God will often call us to do things that are so much bigger than we can accomplish by ourselves?

[Tweet “God will often call us to do things that are bigger than what we can accomplish on our own – @studentdevos”]

That’s where faith comes in. When we face something that is bigger than we can handle or do on our own, it takes faith to believe that God is going to come through for us. God often will often stir us to do something much bigger than what we can do on our own.

Today’s Truth: Faith feels frightening.

But in those moments where we are not enough, faith is what will carry us on.

Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. – Hebrews 11:1 (TPT)

When God calls you to do something, it will usually be bigger than just what you can do by yourself. God wants to provide and help you do the things He has called you to do, but it takes faith to believe that. Will you have great faith and do what God is calling you to do?

Today’s Challenge: God is looking for people who will say yes in faith!