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Did you know that there is a recipe for faith, with five essential ingredients in the formula for faith? They are vital for a healthy and thriving Christian life. Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). It has been said that the way to the heart is through the stomach. But just as bread gives life to the body, God’s word also gives life to the spirit. However, faith is required to receive God’s word.
The Way to The Heart
I was born in New Orleans, where we have a saying: “The rest of the world eats to live, but in New Orleans, we live to eat.” One of my favorite foods is gumbo; my wife makes the best pot you’ve ever tasted. Many ingredients go into making gumbo, but the most crucial element is the roux. The roux binds all the ingredients together, giving gumbo its distinctive flavor.
We need a suitable diet of good food to sustain our physical health. We also need a stable diet of spiritual food to maintain our spiritual soundness. Today, we can see how humanity’s disposition is increasingly changing for the worse, and it is because we are feeding our spirits unhealthy food. However, the Bible offers a diverse range of spiritual nourishment. However, to truly understand it, you must first read the Bible and then combine it with faith. Faith is the roux that binds together the ingredients necessary to receive God’s word. I have listed five essential ingredients in the recipe of faith here. Bon appétit.
1. Grace
Grace, the first ingredient in the recipe for faith, is a transformative force. It is the roux that binds all the ingredients together. Through grace, we receive salvation, a gift from God that we do not earn (Ephesians 2:8). This grace, born out of God’s love for us, provides the faith to accept Christ as our Savior. It’s a comforting reminder that our faith is not based on our merits but on God’s unmerited favor.
In God’s word, we learn that Moses gave the law, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Before grace came, the purpose of the law was to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we might see our need for a Savior. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” It is by the law that we know sin. If we did not know sin, how could we sin?
As believers in Christ, we place too much emphasis on sin and not enough focus on grace. Perhaps it is because growing in grace takes time. We must recognize that we are no longer under the Old Covenant of the Law. Under grace, God has made a New Covenant with us, in which He says, “…I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus defeated sin; therefore, we should rest in God’s grace. The law demands, whereas grace supplies.
2. Confidence
The next ingredient in the recipe for faith is confidence. Faith does not come by just believing in God. If you want faith to produce results, you must be confident that God is bigger than your problems. You must have the kind of confidence that fearlessly trusts God in any situation. When you have faith, your faith convinces you that God will not disappoint you. Too often, we expect that God will answer our prayers in the future. You know, pray today, get the answer tomorrow. However, God’s word states that faith is present.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith” refers to the kind of faith that assures us that God has already answered our prayers. It is that kind of confidence that gives us the faith necessary to receive God’s blessings now.
For this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
1 John 5:14-15
3. Love
Another essential ingredient in the recipe for faith is love. “For God so loved the world…” But you must know that God loves you as an individual. You are not “the world” but one of the people that make up the world’s population. God knows who you are, He knows your name, and He loves you.
“Faith works through love” (Galatians 5:6). But what does that mean? In the original Greek text, the word used for love is agape. It means God’s kind of love is a love that will never forsake you.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35, 38-39
Your faith will deliver results when you discover how much God loves you. Then you begin to comprehend that God’s “agape” love is absolute; you understand that receiving God’s love does not depend on your performance. Most importantly, you discover that God’s love is constant.
4. Obedience
The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). We know that death entered the world by sin when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. But what was Adam’s sin? What was Adam guilty of? Adam was guilty of the sin of disobedience.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:19
Obedience is another ingredient in the recipe for faith. Although Jesus was the Son of God, He learned obedience through the things He suffered. We know that our faith is perfected through obedience, for the Bible says that Jesus, having been perfected by His obedience to the Father, became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9).
5. Courage
The final ingredient in the recipe is courage. Faith requires courage. It is easy to say, “I have faith,” until the fire gets hot. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego took their faith to the ultimate. King Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to worship the golden statue that he had made of himself. The young Hebrew boys told him that they worshiped only God. The king was infuriated. He commanded that the brick kiln used for baking bricks be heated seven times hotter and thrown into the fire fully dressed. They answered the king, “Our God can deliver us from the fire, but even if He does not, we will not worship the status you have set before us.”
Faith has no regard for the natural occurrences of life. That is because faith trusts God for the supernatural. It takes courage to trust God in the face of certain death, but their courage and faith brought a miracle. God expects that we have the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego as we fight the good fight of faith. Faith produces courage, and your courage will motivate God to deliver you.
