Building Up Our God-given Faith

# 10 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 1Ti 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia--remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Let's talk about “godly edification which is in faith.” Obviously, we have two choices here. We can either give ear to superfluous teachings that raise fruitless questions, which inevitably lead to the great enemy of faith....doubt, which, when left unchecked will shipwreck our very salvation! Or we can follow the course of “godly edification which is in faith.” The word “godly” tells us that this latter course is of God, it is the course that He desires for us to pursue. The word “edification” means “confirmation”, which is defined as “the process of supporting a statement with evidence” “Godly edification” therefore, is wrapped up in a package called faith, and Heb 11:1 says this about faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It's an inward confirmation or conviction that God and His Word are true! Some other things about faith: We know that faith is a gift of God: Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, and we know He measures it out individually: Ro 12:3b, “as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” And we know that the exercise of faith is pleasing to Him: Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him,” The point is this: Don't go chasing after superfluous doctrines that will lead you away from the main thing and displease God! God has granted you and I the gift of faith and measured it out to us, and we need to use it! We need to put it into play! We need to step out of the boat as Peter did, as he responded to a one word command of Jesus, “Come!” Every time we meet circumstances in our life with an eye toward obedience and trust of God and His Word, we exercise our God-given faith, we edify it, or build it up, and this is pleasing to Him!