New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional

by Paul David Tripp

Faith so completely takes God at his word that it is willing to do what he says and stay inside his boundaries. Faith is a response of your heart to God that completely alters the way you live your life. You don’t just think by faith; you live by faith. Now, it is important to face two implications of real, living faith. First, faith is simply never natural for us. We aren’t born with faith in God. We don’t come out of the womb ready to acknowledge his existence, worship him for his glory, and submit to his rules. We tend to live by sight, by personal experience, by collective research, or by good old intuition, but faith isn’t natural. It’s natural to give yourself to wonderment about mysteries in your life you’ll never solve. It’s natural to imagine where you’ll be in ten or twenty years. It’s natural to wonder why someone else’s life has turned out so very different from yours. It’s natural to panic at moments, wondering if God really does exist and, if he does, if he hears your prayers. But putting your entire existence in the hands of One whom you cannot see, touch, or hear is far from natural. This is why faith is only ever a gift of divine grace. You and I have all the power in the world to doubt and no independent power at all to believe. So if you are living by faith, don’t proudly pat yourself on the back as if you did something great. No, raise your eyes and your hands toward heaven and thank God for gifting you with the desire and ability to believe. Second, pa...