Faith is confidence in a trustworthy God.
By Paul Zhang
People often say, "I believe."
Some say, "I believe there is a God."
Others say, "I believe in Jesus."
Some say, "I grew up Christian. Of course I believe."
And others may say, "I know the Bible. I know what Christianity teaches. I believe."
But when we read the Bible carefully, we discover something important:
Not every kind of "belief" is the same.
The Bible speaks of unbelief, but it also describes different kinds and degrees of faith. James tells us that even demons believe. Jesus rebuked His disciples for having "little faith." Yet when He met a Roman centurion, He marveled at his "great faith." Jesus even spoke of faith that could move mountains.
So perhaps the real question is not simply:
"Do you believe?"
We need to go further:
"What kind of faith do you have?"
And then there is another question:
"Where are you in your journey of faith?"
To answer these questions, we first need to understand what faith actually is.
Hebrews gives us one of the clearest definitions in Scripture:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
--- Hebrews 11:1
Faith deals with what we cannot yet see.
If everything were already visible, there would be no need for faith.
If the money is already in your bank account, you do not need faith to believe it is there. You can see the balance.
If the doctor has already given you a clean bill of health, you no longer need to wait in faith for the test results. You already have them.
Faith becomes necessary precisely when we cannot yet see.
When Abraham left his country, his people, and his father's household, he could not see everything that lay ahead.
When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, he did not know every step of the journey.
When the disciples first followed Jesus, they had no idea how the cross and resurrection would eventually unfold.
Faith means that when we cannot see the whole road ahead, we still trust God enough to take the next step.
Christian faith, therefore, is not positive thinking.
It is not telling ourselves:
"If I believe strongly enough, everything will happen exactly the way I want."
That is not biblical faith.
Biblical faith says:
"I may not know what is going to happen, but I know the One I trust."
At its deepest level, faith is not confidence that a particular outcome will happen.
Faith is confidence in a trustworthy God.
This brings us to an even more important question.
If someone says, "I believe God exists," does that automatically mean that person has saving faith?
Not necessarily.
The Bible tells us that there is a kind of belief that never moves beyond intellectual acknowledgment.
James writes:
"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."
--- James 2:19
That is a startling statement.
Even demons believe.
They know God exists. They know who Jesus is. In the Gospels, demons even recognized Jesus as "the Holy One of God."
Their problem is not a lack of information.
They know, but they do not surrender.
They recognize, but they do not obey.
They acknowledge the truth, but they do not entrust themselves to
Christ.
Knowing about Christianity is not the same as trusting Christ.
Knowing who Jesus is is not the same as receiving Him as Savior and Lord.
The faith that saves goes much deeper.
Paul writes:
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
--- Romans 10:9
John puts it this way:
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
--- John 1:12
Notice how closely these two ideas are connected:
Receiving Him and believing in Him.
Saving faith is not merely saying with your mind, "Yes, I know."
It is saying with your life:
"Yes, I receive Him."
It is the difference between standing outside a house and saying, "I know someone is inside," and actually opening the door and welcoming that person in.
That is why the gospel does more than invite us to learn facts about Jesus.
The gospel calls us to come to Jesus---to repent, believe, receive Him, confess Him as Lord, and follow Him.
When we talk about faith, we need to think about it in at least two dimensions.
The first is:
Is my faith genuine?
The second is:
How mature is my faith?
The order matters.
Before asking whether our faith is strong or weak, great or small, we should first ask:
Is it real?
James gives us a serious warning:
"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
--- James 2:17
This does not mean that we earn salvation through good works.
We are not saved because we have done enough good things.
Rather, genuine faith begins to produce a changed life.
A living tree eventually bears fruit.
The fruit does not make the tree alive. It reveals that the tree is alive.
In the same way, Christians are not saved by good works. But when someone truly receives Christ, that faith begins to produce repentance, obedience, love, and transformation.
So we should ask ourselves:
Do I merely know about Jesus, or have I received Him?
Do I simply agree that Christianity makes sense, or have I entrusted my life to Christ?
Do I believe in Him only on Sunday, or am I learning to follow Him Monday through Saturday as well?
Before asking how big our faith is, we must first ask:
Is our faith alive?
Once a person has genuinely trusted Christ, faith still needs to grow.
This brings us to the second dimension:
the maturity of our faith.
Jesus once said to His disciples:
"Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?"
--- Matthew 8:26
Notice something important.
The disciples did have faith.
If they had no faith at all, they would not have cried out to Jesus:
"Lord, save us!"
They believed enough to run to Him.
But when they looked at the wind and the waves, fear took over.
They believed in Jesus, yet at that moment the storm looked bigger than Jesus.
That is little faith.
And if we are honest, many of us know exactly what that feels like.
We believe in God, but we worry about our jobs.
We believe in God, but we are terrified when the doctor gives us bad news.
We believe in God, but we lose sleep over our children.
We believe in God, but when the number in our bank account begins to fall, anxiety takes over.
We believe in God, but when the church faces difficulty, we begin asking, "God, where are You?"
This does not always mean that we have no faith.
Sometimes it simply reveals that our faith is still small.
We know in our minds that God is great, but when the storm comes, suddenly the storm feels greater than God.
There is a striking contrast between the disciples in the storm and the Roman centurion who came to Jesus.
The centurion had a servant who was seriously ill. Jesus was willing to come to his home.
But the centurion said:
"Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed."
--- Matthew 8:8
When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said:
"I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
--- Matthew 8:10
Why did Jesus call this "great faith"?
Because the centurion did not need Jesus to physically enter his house.
He did not need to see Jesus touch the servant.
He did not need visible proof before he could trust.
His confidence was simple:
If Jesus says the word, that is enough.
This is one of the clearest differences between little faith and growing faith.
Little faith often says:
"Lord, let me see it first, and then I will trust You."
Maturing faith learns to say:
"Lord, because You have spoken, I will trust You even before I see."
That is not blind faith.
It is faith rooted in a growing knowledge of God.
Think about a child jumping into a father's arms.
The child does not calculate gravity. He does not measure the strength of his father's arms. He jumps because he knows his father.
Deep faith grows out of relationship.
The more we know God, the more we learn to trust Him.
Jesus also warned us about another condition.
In the parable of the sower, He said:
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
--- Luke 8:13
Notice those words:
"For a while believe."
A person may feel deeply moved.
A person may cry.
A person may become enthusiastic.
A person may even appear spiritually passionate for a season.
But emotion and enthusiasm are not the same as being deeply rooted in Christ.
Often, the real test of faith comes not in times of comfort but in times of trouble.
It is easy to say, "Praise God," when prayers are answered quickly.
But what happens when you have prayed for months and nothing seems to change?
It is easy to believe that God is good when your body is healthy.
But what happens when illness comes?
It is easy to praise God when doors keep opening.
But what happens when one door after another closes?
That is when we begin to discover where our roots really are.
Trials do not merely test our faith. Sometimes they reveal what kind of faith we actually have.
Does a Christian immediately possess mature faith the moment he or she is saved?
Of course not.
Faith grows.
The disciples once made a very honest request:
"Lord, Increase our faith."
--- Luke 17:5
Abraham's faith also developed over time.
Paul later wrote of him:
"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God."
--- Romans 4:20
Notice the expression:
"Strong in faith."
Faith is not static.
It grows through obedience.
It is strengthened through trials.
It deepens as we experience God's faithfulness again and again.
We might describe the journey like this:
From knowing to receiving.
From receiving to trusting.
From trusting to obeying.
From obeying to surrendering.
From needing to see before we believe, to believing even when we cannot
yet see.
That is spiritual growth.
Jesus even spoke about faith that can move mountains:
"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed... ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove."
--- Matthew 17:20
We naturally focus on the mountain.
But Jesus first points to something very small:
a mustard seed.
That reminds us of something essential:
The power of faith does not come from how intensely we believe. It comes from the One in whom we believe.
Faith is not a spiritual superpower.
And Christians do not use faith to control God or force Him to fulfill our personal wishes.
Biblical faith says the opposite.
It does not say:
"God, I believe, so now You must do what I want."
It says:
"God, because I trust You, I will place my life in Your hands, however You choose to lead me."
That is mature faith.
Now we can return to the question we started with.
Do you believe?
Perhaps your answer is:
"Yes, I do."
Then let us go one step further:
What kind of faith do you have?
Do you simply believe that some kind of God exists?
Do you know who Jesus is?
Do you agree with certain Christian teachings?
Or have you truly received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?
And if you have already trusted Christ, there is another question:
Where is your faith today?
Do you still need to see before you believe?
When circumstances change, do you immediately lose your peace?
When prayer is not answered according to your timetable, do you begin to question God?
When God's Word conflicts with your feelings, which one do you trust?
These questions are not meant to condemn us.
They are meant to help us see honestly where we are.
Jesus did not abandon His disciples because they had "little faith."
He stayed with them.
He taught them.
He corrected them.
He allowed them to experience His faithfulness again and again.
And eventually, those same disciples who had once been terrified in a storm became men willing to face persecution, suffering, and even death for the gospel.
That is what growing faith looks like.
So what is faith?
Yes, Christian faith includes believing that God exists.
It includes believing in Jesus Christ.
It includes believing that Christ died for our sins on the cross and rose again from the dead.
But biblical faith does not stop with knowing these truths.
Saving faith moves from:
"I know who Jesus is,"
to:
"I receive Jesus as my Savior."
And maturing faith continues moving from:
"I believe God can,"
to:
"I trust God Himself."
Those two statements may sound similar, but there is a profound difference between them.
When I only believe that "God can," my attention may still be centered on the outcome I want.
When I trust God Himself, my attention shifts from the outcome to God.
Even when life does not unfold according to my plan, I can still trust that He is good.
Even when the answer to my prayer has not yet come, I can trust that He hears me.
Even when I cannot see the road ahead, I can still follow Him.
Even when I cannot see the fulfillment yet, I can trust His promise.
Because:
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Perhaps you have always thought that being a Christian simply meant believing that God exists.
The Bible invites us to something deeper.
Not merely to know about Him,
but to come to Him.
Not merely to study Him,
but to receive Him.
Not merely to look for Him when we need help,
but to entrust our lives to Him.
Because ultimately, the gospel is not asking:
"How much do you know about Jesus?"
The deeper question is:
"Will you trust Him, receive Him, and follow Him?"
If you have never personally received Jesus Christ, you can come to Him today.
You do not have to wait until you become a better person.
You do not have to wait until every question has been answered.
You can begin with a simple and sincere prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I choose to trust You. I confess that I am a sinner in need of salvation. Thank You for coming into this world, dying on the cross for my sins, and rising from the dead. I receive You as my Savior, and I want to learn to follow You as the Lord of my life. Please forgive me, lead me, and help me to know You, trust You, and follow You from this day forward. Amen."
And for those of us who have followed Christ for many years, there is still a question worth asking:
Where is my faith today?
Is it merely faith in my head?
Is it little faith that quickly gives way when the storm comes?
Or is it a living faith that is learning to trust, surrender, and stand firm?
For the rest of our lives, we will continue learning the same lesson:
From knowing Him to trusting Him.
From believing that He can to trusting who He is.
From walking by sight to walking by faith.
That is faith.
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