faith

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!

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.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. – James 2:17

Today, let’s pretend that your grandma told you that she was going to give you $1,000 for your birthday this year. She told you that she went to the bank and put it in your bank account. Does just knowing that your grandma put money in your account do you any good? Not really. You might do a little happy dance thinking about the fact that you have some money. However, that money doesn’t do you any good sitting in the bank. It wouldn’t help you buy that car you were saving for. Why? Because if you didn’t ever use it, or take it out of the bank, it wouldn’t help you.

That’s a lot like what today’s Bible verse is telling us. It’s saying that faith is awesome, and knowing about it is great. However, if we don’t do something with our faith, it doesn’t do us any good. Faith isn’t something that you keep hidden and never use. Instead faith should be a tool that we use each day in our lives.

So challenge yourself today to put your faith to work. Faith should produce action, so choose to step out, believe God and do something great for Him today!

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!

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