Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The seventh fruit of the Spirit is faith. What is faith? Well, there are two ways to look at this.
The first is faith in God. Hebrews 11 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is our trust in God; trust that He will always keep his Word. Faith is reliance on God. It is the essence of Christianity. Without faith, our Christianity is worthless. The Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. It is vital that we have faith.
It is listed in the Fruit of the Spirit because we can only obtain faith from the Holy Spirit. Faith is not something we obtain ourselves; it is given by God as we walk in the Spirit. As we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, our faith will grow. I, personally, have seen this in my own life. Events that would have alarmed and worried me a few years ago do not bother me today. I have faith that God will carry me through.
This is a very powerful fruit. Our testimony of faith can greatly impact those around us. Having faith in a God that we cannot see goes against the logic of the unsaved. So when they see that faith in us, and how it affects our mentality, it will begin to affect them also.
There is one other way to look at this fruit. When looking up definitions of faith, one stuck out to me.
Sincerity; honesty; veracity; faithfulness
The fruit of faith is not only having faith in God, but being faithful ourselves. As Christians, people should be able to have faith in us. We are Christians, or “little Christs”. If God is faithful, then so should we be as well. People should be able to trust us. And as we allow the other fruits to work in our lives, that faith will automatically come. As we have love, people can trust us look out for them and to care for them. As we have joy, people can trust us to be a happy and enjoyable person. As we have peace, people can have trust us that we will not freak out at every piece of bad news. As we have longsuffering, people can trust us to have patience and not blow our top. With gentleness and goodness, we can be trusted not to be violent or dishonest.
You see, as our walk in the Spirit grows, we become more and more like Christ, and that faith we place in Him will, to an extent, be able to be placed on us by the unsaved. This is vital to our testimony: that we stay steady and trustworthy. It is also a very serious responsibility. One wrong action can destroy that trust, and ruin our testimony for years to come, if not forever.
So pray for faith. Pray for that trust in God, and as He gives it to you, walk in a way that allows others to have faith in you.
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