Spiritual Triathlon - Part 5

… If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Mathew 17:20

Today we are going to examine a component that must be present in each of our events for them to be effective. That component is faith. Without faith prayer is just words, without faith the Bible is just a book, without faith meditation is just daydreaming.

In Matthew 17 is the record of a child who is possessed by a demon, the disciples have tried to cast it out of the boy and failed. Jesus arrives and refers to the disciples, with a sorrowful voice, as “a faithless generation”. You see, the disciples had been trained by Jesus and had access to all of the power needed to accomplish the task – but they lacked faith. If you lack faith your Spiritual Triathlon will be waste of time.

Jesus later tells the disciples that “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting”. Both prayer and fasting are symptoms of faith. Faith express’s itself in communication. If we have little faith then we have little communication because we feel what is the point? Fasting is self-denial and surrender to the work of God If we want to do anything significant with god it is going to take spending some time with God and sacrificing some things for Him. Those who do not believe will not pray. They will think it is foolish to spend time with God. Those who do not pray will certainly not sacrifice.

How is your faith? Ask yourself this question “Do I believe God can do anything?” You may have quickly answered yes, but do you live your life like you believe? Are you worried about what tomorrow brings? Are you worried about how you are going to pay your bills? Do things of this world keep you awake at night? Whatever you fear or whatever worries you shows a weakness in your faith. Go to God right now and give it all to Him. Remind yourself everyday that God is God and He is still in control. He is all powerful and can do anything. When you pray do it with the expectation that God will answer. When you read the Bible do so with the knowledge that every jot and tittle is blessed and true and written by the hand of God. When you meditate keep close to your mind that God is answering your prayers, visualizes what that will be like and prepare for his answer.

Pray for me as I pray for you.