Yesterday, we confronted the subject of our love for God. We saw how life, routine, and religious activity can quietly leave the heart cold toward Him without us even realizing it. We were called back, back to remembrance, back to first love.

Today, we continue in that same posture of stirring up, but this time we turn our attention to faith. Because love for God that does not trust God is incomplete. You cannot claim to love Him and at the same time refuse to take Him at His word.

So let us begin with another honest question today: what are you actually believing right now?
This is not about what you say on Sunday, what you post or how you pray publicly. What are you truly believing in the quiet places of your heart? Because what you actually believe does not show up when everything is fine, it shows up when things seem bad, when the account is empty, when the doctor is shaking his head, when the people around you are telling you to be realistic.

Many believers have quietly come to accept that faith is something you feel. That some days you wake up with it and some days you do not. That when the situation shifts, the faith shifts. But that is not faith.

Faith is not a mere feeling. It is not a mood that rises in worship and crumbles when the storm hits. Faith is a choice. You choose to believe what God says over what you see. You choose to believe what God says over what you feel. You choose to believe what God says over what anyone around you is saying.

Hebrews 11:1
New King James Version
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Let us look closer at this verse. The Greek word translated as “substance” is hupostasis. It is a compound of two words, hupo, meaning under, and stasis, meaning standing. Literally, it means that which stands under, a foundation, a support, that which gives a thing its actual existence. It is the same word used in Hebrews 1:3 where Jesus is described as the express image of God’s “person” (hupostasis), His very being.

So when the writer of Hebrews says faith is the substance of things hoped for, he is saying faith is the underlying reality that holds your hope up. Without faith, what you are hoping for has nothing to stand on. The word translated as “evidence” is the Greek word “elenchos”, which means proof, conviction, a legal demonstration. It carries the weight of a courtroom. Faith is the proof in your spirit of what your eyes have not yet seen.

Understand what this means, dear believer. Faith is always tested by what you can see, because faith by its very nature operates in the realm of what you cannot yet see. If you could already see it, you would not need faith. This is the walk of every believer. God will say one thing, and for a season, the circumstance will say another. He will promise provision while the account is still empty. He will promise healing while the body is still hurting. He will promise breakthrough while the door is still shut. And in the gap between what He said and what you see, you are being invited to trust Him.

2 Corinthians 5:7
New King James Version
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

The word “walk” here means to tread all around, to make one’s way, to regulate one’s life. It is about the pattern of your life.
So faith is not a Sunday moment or a quick prayer in the middle of panic. Faith is a walk; it is a lifestyle. It is how you move, it is how you respond, it is how you speak when nothing around you makes sense.

And here is something you must understand: some circumstances that look like a contradiction can actually be an invitation. That contradiction you are facing right now, the one that seems to mock everything God has said to you, is not the cancellation of His word. It is an invitation to trust Him in a way you have not trusted Him before.

You are not the first to face this. Abraham did too.
Romans 4:18-21
New King James Version
18 “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”

So when the Bible says Abraham did not “consider” his own body, it is not saying he was in denial. It is saying he refused to fix his mind on it. He refused to let his aged body be the object of his sustained meditation. Abraham was not half-convinced. He was completely persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to perform.

This is the faith posture God is calling you into. Abraham knew his body was aged, but he just would not let that fact become his focus. He put the word of God on top, and he kept every other fact under it.

What have you been fixing your mind on? What report, what diagnosis, what delay have you been giving sustained attention to, until it has become louder in your heart than the word of God?
This is where you must feed your faith. Because faith does not grow on its own.

Romans 10:17
New King James Version
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

In Greek, there are two main words used for “word” in the New Testament: logos and rhema. Logos is the broader word, the whole revealed mind and will of God, Scripture as a body of truth. Rhema is more specific; it is the word spoken, the utterance, the living word that meets you in the moment.

The word used here in Romans 10:17 is rhema. That is deliberate. Faith does not just come from knowing the Bible exists. Faith comes when the written word (logos) becomes a spoken, living word (rhema) that grips your heart. That is why two believers can read the same verse and one is unmoved while the other rises in faith. The difference is whether the logos has become rhema to them.

So faith comes by the word. Faith comes when you sit with the word of God long enough for it to speak directly to you. If you are not in His word, your faith will not grow. It will actually shrink, because every other voice will rush in to fill the space His voice should be filling.

So get back in the word. Find the verses that speak directly to what you are facing right now. Hold on to them. Write them down. Speak them out. Meditate on them until they become louder in your heart than the lie your situation has been telling you.

God is not intimidated by what is in front of you. He is not moved by the report. He is not surprised by the delay. He already told you who He is and what He can do. Your job is not to figure out how He will do it. Your job is to believe.

Mark 11:22-24
New King James Version
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Have faith in God. That is the instruction. Your faith is only as strong as the One you are placing it in, and the One you are placing it in has never failed.
So stir it up, dear believer.

Just as yesterday, you were called to stir up love for God, today stir up your faith. Do not let unbelief quietly settle in. Do not let fear talk louder than His promises. Stop rehearsing the problem, start rehearsing what He said.

Open your Bible. Find His word on your situation. Read it until it grips you. Speak it until it shapes you. Hold on to it when everything in you wants to let go. That is what faith looks like in real life. 
The promise has not expired. The word has not failed. The contradiction in front of you is not the end of the story. It is the invitation to watch God do what only He can do.
Stir up your faith.

Prayer Point
Father, I repent of every place I have allowed what I see to talk louder than what You have said. I choose today to walk by faith and not by sight. Strengthen me in faith the way and help me not to fix my mind on what contradicts Your promise.