Choosing Love Today: Romans - Enduring Faith: Episode 3 - What Faith Really Is

As Paul continues in Romans, he talks about wanting to visit the believers in Rome so he can strengthen their faith — and be strengthened by theirs. And before we go any further in this series, I want to pause right here and talk about that word: faith. Because faith is a big word. It’s a church word. It’s a Bible word. But it’s also a real-life word, and sometimes we use it without slowing down long enough to understand what it actually means. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That’s beautiful… but let’s put it in everyday language. Faith is choosing to trust God with what you can’t see yet. It’s choosing to believe He’s working even when you don’t feel it. It’s choosing to take the next step even when you don’t know how everything is going to turn out. Faith isn’t pretending. Faith isn’t forcing yourself to feel strong. Faith isn’t acting like everything is fine. Faith is simply trusting God with the part of your life that feels uncertain. And here’s something important: faith is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. But just like a muscle, it has to be exercised. It grows when it’s stretched. It grows when it’s challenged. It grows when life puts you in situations where you have to lean on God. Nobody builds muscle by sitting still — and nobody builds faith by avoiding the places where trust is required. Paul understood that faith grows best in real life. Faith does not grow in perfect conditions. Not when everything is easy. Faith grows when life stretches you. It grows when you’re tired. It grows when you’re unsure. It grows when you’re praying about something you can’t fix on your own. It grows when you’re walking through something that requires you to trust God more deeply than you did yesterday. So, let me ask you today: Where is your faith being stretched? What part of your life feels uncertain? And what would it look like to trust God with that one thing — not the whole world, just that one thing? Faith doesn’t grow all at once. It grows one day at a time, one choice at a time, one step at a time. And as we walk through this mini-series, I want you to bring your real life, your real questions, your real struggles, and your real hope — because that’s where faith grows.   Thanks for listening to Enduring Faith. Keep enduring, hold the faith… and keep Choosing Love Today.