What Are You Basing Your Faith On?

a devotional by Nathan Deck

As Christians, we have come to a saving faith in God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the foundation for growth as we continue to grow in our relationship and continue to learn more and more about our Savior as we study His Word.

Now, as you read that you probably were thinking “well duh, of course we have faith in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.” 

But when it really comes down to it, sometimes it is easy for us to put our faith in something or someone else. What I mean when I say that is not that it is wrong to have faith in other things, but it is inherently wrong to base our faith on these things. 

Why is this wrong? This is wrong because when you base your faith on something other than what Jesus did for us on the cross, and instead build your faith on an event that happened to you, it is easy to “lose” your faith when something happens that seems to go against the event you were basing your faith on.

An example of this would be basing your faith on an emotional response to a service or retreat. Maybe you felt that you had an encounter with God, and you look to that day as amazing and once in a life time experience. Then you go about your life and everything you do is an attempt to have that experience again, not to follow Christ, however that looks, but to try and have another experience. This can lead you into full blown legalism, or it could bring you to a point where what you do as a believer looks pointless, and you stop doing it. Another example would be basing your faith on your parent’s faith, or a friend’s faith. Using them as a catalyst to base your walk on. This is dangerous because if they are your catalyst and they either walk away, or hurt you in any way, it is easy to start to question God and maybe even walk away yourself.

We must remember and base our walks on the cross, and on the resurrection of Christ who, as the Bible tells us, died for us while we were still sinners, who wanted nothing to do with Him. That is what we should come back to when we are struggling, or questioning, and remember that God loves us the same when we are following Him with all our hearts and when we may have doubts and questions.