Faith is the Foundation

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”    Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the foundation of the Christian’s walk with God.  Everything we believe comes from faith.  Faith perceives as real those things that cannot be seen with the senses.  Our salvation comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ:  believing that He is the Son of God, that He lived a blameless life, that He became sin and sickness for us at Calvary, and through His death on the cross we are saved.  That is why that without faith, it is impossible to please God. For without faith we cannot believe in His Son Jesus.

Faith knows that in the beginning, there was nothing.  And then God spoke and the earth, the stars, the sky, the moon, the sun, the animals, the fish, the birds, and all living things were created at His command, including man and woman.  It was Abraham’s faith, His belief in a good God, an Almighty God, a God who was able to do that which He promised, a God who was a rewarder of those who diligently sought Him and followed after Him, that caused him to leave his home and go on a journey with nothing but God’s word of…go to a place I have for you; I will show you the way as you go.  He trusted in God and in His faithfulness and went, even though he didn’t have the directions or the full picture.  He trusted in God to lead him, guide him, direct him, provide for him, and get him safely to his end destination.

Is this starting to sound familiar?  As a Christian health coach, faith is the foundation of health coaching.  Faith believes in the integrity of God’s word, that it will accomplish that which it says it will do.  The Message Translation of Heb 11:1 says, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”

When we come into health coaching, we are stuck in our present.  We have hopes and dreams and desires of where we want to go but don’t know how to get there.  We may be frustrated because we have tried this and that and it has not produced what we hoped for.  If this is you, maybe the missing component is faith.  Faith is the activator that helps us get there.  The TLB translation says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.”  Why is this?  Because our faith is in God and not ourselves.  Our faith is in His abilities and not our own.  Our faith is in His promises and not the word of man.

Too many times we try and do things in our own strength, our own wisdom and logic, our own understanding.  From personal experience, when I am independent of Holy Spirit, I usually muck things up.  It is only by being in dependence upon Him that I can and that I am able.

How do people normally go about trying to change their health?  By making lifestyle and behavioral changes, like what you eat, how you move and exercise, how you think, how you live your life, how you cope with stress, how you make environmental changes.  Sometimes this works for folks but oftentimes the success is either limited or not sustained.  This leads to feelings of frustration and failure, feeling like you will never succeed, or general unhappiness with your lot in life. Prov 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”  The Message Translation says, “Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick.”  The original word for heart is also translated as “feelings, the will, the intellect, the mind.”  The original word for sick is also translated as “be weak, be afflicted, be diseased, be sorry, be wounded, be grieved.”  Sound familiar?  However, there is good news.  Let’s look at the second half of that verse: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when dreams come true at last, there is life and joy.” (TLB)

Our lifestyle and behavior choices are a byproduct of what motivates us.  So a question is:  where does our motivation come from? What are we motivated by, because our subsequent decisions and actions flow from that.  In other words, what foundation are we standing on?  Where do our values come from?  Is it societal norms?  Is it what other people say or do?  Or is it The Rock – Jesus – and the word of God?  Deut 32:4 (CEB) says about Jesus, “The Rock: His acts are perfection! No doubt about it: all His ways are right! He’s the faithful God, never deceiving; altogether righteous and true is He.”

As Christians, our faith is to be the foundation for who we are, what we believe, what we do, and what we value in life.   Our works – our actions, our choices – should be a reflection of our faith.  This is a never-ending work in progress until the day that we go home!  If you are reading this and you are struggling with habit change, maybe it is time to look at your foundation.  What are you building on?  And what do you want to build on?  The choice is always ours.

I’ll close with this powerful rendition of the importance of building your life on the foundation of Jesus and His word from Mt 7:24-27, the Message Translation:  “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

Remember:  faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.

If you are interested in Christian health coaching, contact me!