The Bible says in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 that the just shall live by faith. Faith is not an option for the people of God, it is and must remain, a way of life.
Let’s look at what the Amplified Bible says faith is;Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
Faith is the title deed to what you believe God for, if you were to bring me a title deed to a car that would be the proof that a car exists somewhere. Therefore your faith is the proof that what you believe God for truly does exist somewhere. Your faith should be all the confirmation needed – it is the proof that the thing the word of God promises you exists.
The Amplified Bible says it is the conviction that it is real, even though it hasn’t been revealed to our senses yet. That, my friend, is faith. And faith is the lifestyle that we are called to live. The just, that is us, shall live by faith.
Let’s look at Hebrews 10:38; the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him. If you start out in faith and then become weary and ready to give up, you are drawing back.
When a man or woman draws back from faith they will begin to say things like; ‘Well, I really thought it was God that told me to do that, but I must have missed it.’ Or they will say ‘I tried doing it that way but it did not work for me.’ Or ‘I have been standing in faith for a long time, it doesn’t work, I am going to go my own way.’ All these are words of a person who is drawing back and God says He will have no pleasure in that person.
The Bible says we are to hold our confidence steadfast to the end. When God speaks something to us and we begin to walk in faith, our faith is strong and sure. Life and circumstances will try to weaken our faith, but we can’t allow that to happen. We have to build our faith daily, we have to exercise our faith, just as we would exercise our body, we have to keep it strong and guard against the little things what would come to attempt to weaken our faith. Things like well-meaning people saying ‘are you sure God said that?’ Or ‘don’t you think it would be wiser to do this?’ Or ‘that faith stuff doesn’t seem to be working; maybe you should go a different way.’
Many times circumstances will occur that will attempt to make you believe that faith is not working – but faith always works – it never fails. That is a promise in the word of God – faith in God’s word never fails.
I did a word study on the word ‘draw back’ and found it to mean something interesting. It means to hesitate to avow what you believe. The word ‘avow’ means to declare openly, with a view to justify, maintain or defend; or simply to own, acknowledge or confess frankly.
We are to openly declare our faith in God and His word and what we are standing in faith for. God intends for us to defend our beliefs and maintain our strong stand of faith and He means for us to do it with our words. If we are refusing to draw back then we are refusing to shrink back from declaring what we believe. In other words, the just lives by faith and in faith he will openly declare the word of God and the promise that God has given him; he will defend to the very end what the word of God says concerning the situation, without hesitation – he will confess God’s promises frankly and openly – he will own them. We will not sit down and be silent – we will be openly declaring what we believe…all the time…without hesitation and with utter boldness. The just SHALL live by faith, openly and loudly…are you one of the just?
