God not only gives you the grace to believe for your salvation, but he also works to enable you to live by faith.

biblical faith—that is, true faith in the existence, presence, promises, and provisions of God—never requires you to deny reality in any way. It is not biblical faith to try to convince yourself that things are better than they actually are. It is not biblical faith to work to make yourself feel good about what is not good. Biblical faith looks reality in the face and does not flinch.

When you have one eye on eternity, this present physical world looks entirely different.

You and I have all the power in the world to doubt and no independent power at all to believe. So if you are living by faith, don't proudly pat yourself on the back as if you did something great. No, raise your eyes and your hands toward heaven and thank God for gifting you with the desire and ability to believe.

Now, allow yourself to consider the radical nature of what this passage says about the deepest motivations of the hearts of God's people. They have connected their deepest love, belief, joy, and faith to someone they have never seen, heard, or touched. They have staked the hopes and dreams of their lives to this invisible One. Their relationship to him is one of life-altering love. When they think of him, they experience joy, joy so deep that it cannot be expressed.

We have forever inside us, and it creates a natural disappointment with the brokenness of the here and now.

Here's what you need to understand: your faith is not your hope; his zealous grace is the only source of hope for fickle-faith sinners.

if your faith is based on your ability to fully understand your past, present, and future, then your moments of confusion will become moments of weakening faith.

Everything we say and do, everything we commit ourselves to, and every situation, location, and relationship we experience is experienced between the already and the not yet. You will never understand the things you face every day until you understand that you live in the middle. Everything in your life is shaped by what the middle is like.

Faith is something that you do with your life. True biblical faith doesn't stop with thought; it radically rearranges the way that you approach everything in your life.

Prayer finds its hope not in the qualifications of the one praying, but in the character and plan of the God who is hearing.

It's so easy to fail to live in light of the fact that Jesus didn't die just for your past forgiveness (praise God that he did) or your future resurrection (what hope!), but also for everything you are facing in the here and now.