Faith Gives Birth to Prayer

Tip! A person's character is always demonstrated in their behavior. The Savior again said,"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good ..." -- Luke 6:45

Faith deals with God, and is conscious of God. It deals with the Lord Jesus Christ and sees in Him a Savior; it deals with God's Word, and lays hold of the truth. Faith deals with the Spirit of God, and is energized and inspired by its holy fire. God is the great objective of faith; for faith rests its whole weight on His Word the Holy Bible.

Faith is not an aimless act of our soul, but a looking to God and a resting on His promises. Just as love and hope have always an objective so, also, has faith. Faith does not believe just anything; it believes in God, resting in Him, trusting His Word.

Faith gives birth to prayer, and our faith grows stronger, strikes deeper, rises higher, in the struggles and wrestling of mighty petitioning. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the assurance and realization of the inheritance of the saints. Faith, too, is humble and persevering. It can wait and pray; it can stay on its knees, or lie in the dust. Faith is the one great condition of prayer; this is why our lack of faith is where lies the root of all poor praying, feeble and little praying and unanswered praying.

The nature and meaning of faith is easily demonstrated in what it does, than it is by reason of any definition given it. Thus, if we turn to the record of faith given us in that great honor roll, which constitutes the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we will see something of the wonderful results of faith.

What a glorious list it is - this list of these men and women of faith! What marvelous achievements are recorded here, and set to the credit of faith! The inspired writer, exhausting his resources in organizing the Old Testament saints, who were such notable examples of wonderful faith, finally exclaims:

"And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:"

And then the writer of Hebrews goes on again, in a wonderful strain, telling of the unrecorded exploits produced through the faith of the men and women of old, "of whom the world was not worthy." "All these," he says, "obtained a good report through faith."

Tip! The Master will not expect more from anyone than a person is capable of doing for Him. Jesus wants us to understand that each person will be rewarded according to their faithfulness in doing their given task.

What an era of glorious achievements would dawn for the Church and the world, if only there could be reproduced a race of saints of like mighty faith, of like wonderful praying!

It is not the intellectually great that the Church needs; nor is it people of wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day requires. Above everybody and everything else, it is people of faith, people of mighty prayer, men and women after the fashion of the saints and heroes that are indicated in Hebrews, who "obtained a good report through faith," this is what we and the Church needs today.