Borrowed Faith

       When I was young I lived on borrowed faith, what is borrowed faith exactly? It's faith that you receive from a parent, grandparent or pastor. It's faith where you actually know only what's been told to you and you have no relationship of your own, except maybe just the occasional prayer when things are really bad. It's faith where you say you believe but you don't really have an answer of why, except maybe that's what your parents believe. But you can't really know the Lord on borrowed faith, we must all form our own relationships with Him. Just because your parent's brought you up in church, or your spouse is devote, or your friend talks to you about Jesus, that doesn't constitute faith, it's not a replacement for the relationship God wants you to have with Him.
     If you are living on borrowed faith and anything like me this message not only stings but it offends, it hurts you and angers you and the reason is that you don't want to admit that in your heart you already know that this is true. God wants our hearts, He wants us fully, He wants our commitment, and borrowed faith is not commitment, it's lip service at best. It's the easy route, it's claiming faith and living without the responsibility or obligation of living up to what is required of you. It's saying 'yes I believe' and throwing up some "amens" and "hallelujahs" just to prove it, but its only surface deep, your heart isn't really there because you don't really know God and can't really love Him.  
       As I stated above I used to live on borrowed faith, I thought I was a Christian just because I believed in God, though you probably wouldn't have guessed it by the lifestyle I was living. I started smoking cigarettes and drinking at age 12, I swore like a sailor by 15 and started abusing pain pills, I began reading erotic novels at 12 and filled my mind with smut, ghost stories, and thrasher flicks, all the while claiming faith and lying to those around me to protect my sinful lifestyle. I believed that I was safe, that I was a Christian because I had been raised to believe in God, because I had prayed the sinners pray, and because I knew my grandmothers were praying for me. I didn't feel the need to read my bible or to even really pray often, and justified that behavior because God already knew what I needed. I figured that praying was a waste of time and I left it mostly to my grandmothers, they would pray for me, and they would tell me things about God so that's all I really needed right?
       Wrong, I was very wrong. 4, almost 5 years ago now I stopped living on borrowed faith. My world fell a part and looking to pastors, my grandmothers, or even my parents for their faith could no longer keep me afloat. I had a decision then, I could get to know God myself and take the hand He was offering to me, I could submit my life to Him and start living His way, or I could let the depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts consume me until I could not escape them. Borrowed faith can only take you so far, once real trouble comes you need a very real relationship with Him in order to endure it, and that is what I learned the hard way. I learned that those rare moments I took to really pray and be in His presence were what God really desired form me, I learned that He wanted my love and for my life to show that love in all aspects of it. I got in my bible and finally learned who God was and that healing came through not only reading His word and standing on His promises but by living out the scriptures. I learned that in Jesus we have forgiveness but we still had to change, we can't have both sin and God. And my life has only gotten better since then.
       Today brothers and sisters I ask that if you are living on borrowed faith that you make the decision to take hold of the hand He is offering you. Commit your life to God and forsake the world, live in gratefulness for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and know that when you do you open the door for to work miracles in your life and for God to completely transform you. Be blessed today and always my friends, in Yeshua's name.

Psalm 84:11   
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly
 
Jeremiah 31:3   
The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you

John 15:5   
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

James 4:8   
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded

1 John 1:9   
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.