“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

To build faith in God you have to be confident that he exists even if you can’t see him. When you are confident in the existence of God, that is faith. Then you can believe what the ancient prophets confessed about God and what God himself said about what he is capable of doing for people who believe in him, people of faith. 

God cares about people and promises to care for people who have faith. Zechariah 10:1 says, “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people and plants of the field to everyone.”

Having faith in God to care for you does not mean that you are idle and are not doing anything. Faith in action, when considering care, is the process of letting go of confidence in yourself to take care of you better than God can.

God says to Zechariah that confidence in self is deceptive, it deceives your heart and gives you false comfort that cannot be assured in every situation. Confidence in yourself will fail you, this is why you should not build your hope or your faith in what you are able to do yourself. God says that his faithfulness will never fail, he will always take care of people who have confidence in their faith in him. 

God says in Zechariah 10:11-12 people who build their faith on me will go through trouble, but that he will be their strength and he will live up to his name, a God who is always faithful; that even in times of trouble they will live securely because of him.

Luke 22:63-71 gives the account of Jesus’ trial in Jerusalem before he was sentenced to death. Luke 22:63-65 says that the guards who were guarding him mocked him, beat him and blindfolded him and demanded, that he prophesy who it was that hit him. 

In this account, Jesus is exemplifying the ridicule that his followers would go through and also showing an example of how to respond to people as believers when we are being mocked for our faith. 

Let your faith testify about the Spirit of God on your life. 

Luke 22:66 says that even the chief priests and teachers of the law did not believe Jesus was the son of God. They did not believe that he was who God had chosen to use to bring salvation to all people, so they accused him of blaspheming God and put him on trial and said, “if you are the Messiah, tell us” (Luke 22:67). 

But Jesus responds that, even if he did tell them they would not believe him (Luke 22:67-68). So then they asked him directly, “Are you the son of God?” (Luke 22:70) and Jesus replied, “you say that I am.”

In this Jesus is saying that the reason you have imprisoned me and have put me on trial is a testimony about who I am and confirms the scriptures prophesied about me that I would be led like a sheep to the slaughter. When Jesus says, “you say that I am” he was also saying that he was on trial because the teachers of the law and chief priests feared that their authority, that was based on the law, had been challenged. 

Have faith in God and what he has spoken about you. 

Jesus exemplifies how faith responds to mockers. Faith always focuses on the promises and word of God, what God has spoken. Jesus tells his accusers who God has chosen him to be when he said, from now on you will not see me as I am in chains and imprisoned and mocked by you but from now on you will see me where God has chosen me to be, seated at the right hand of the mighty God (Luke 22:69).

Jesus knew who he was and what God had spoken over his life. He knew that this was only a trial that he had to suffer through, but that after his suffering he would be given authority over everything and would speak into being everything God had spoken through his prophets about him. 

Like Jesus, we his followers, for his sake face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:36; Psalms 44:22). 

“What then shall we say in response to our accusers: if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies, who then is the one who condemns? No one.” (Romans 8:31-34)

“Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:34-37)

God’s salvation: Faith in Jesus (or do this and like Jesus you will live.)

“What I have received from the Lord I pass on to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25) 

Whenever you have to take the cup of suffering, put action to your faith and drink from it remembering what Jesus said when he called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority:

Faith in Action: Speak what you believe.

“Proclaim this message: the kingdom of heaven has come. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves (Matthew 10:7,16).

Be on your guard; on my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (Matthew 10:17,19-20).

Faith in Action: Let go of fear of man, fear God.

You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs (Matthew 10:22,26-27).

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven (Matthew 10:28,32-33).

Faith in Action: Love God more than your own life.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Micah 7:6, Matthew 10:34-36).

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)