Have you ever asked yourself: “How can I have faith in God during hard times? How can I have faith in Jesus? How can I practice my faith daily? How do I walk by faith even when it seems impossible? How do I know if I have faith? How can I have more faith in God?”
In this video, I will teach you how to have faith in God completely as a Christian woman, even during hard times when it seems impossible. I’ll share how I’m struggling right now in life and how my faith is helping me persevere every day.
Watch this video till the end to understand how to have faith in God and get a special blessing in a form of a free book from me.
What we will not be talking about is how to have faith in yourself. We will not be discussing metaphysical faith. We will be focusing on Biblical faith: how to have faith in Jesus. If you’re asking “What does faith in Jesus mean in practical everyday ways?”, in other words, you’re wondering “How do I bring God into my life?” I will answer these questions in great detail with powerful practical examples.
This Spirit-inspired message is for Christian women who want to experience the abound, profound benefits of having genuine, steadfast, strong faith in God by abiding in Christ instead of walking in your own power through life.
Why should you watch this video till the end? If you ever asked yourself “How do you keep your faith in God strong? How do you trust avid when it looks impossible?” you will get your answers and on top of it, there are 3 unique benefits you can expect from watching my video in full:
- By the end of this video, you will know exactly how to have faith in God completely: not only theoretically but also practically as I will be sharing with you relatable real-life experiences of how I practice faith during trials and tribulations on my own faith journey with God right now.
- You’ll be able to reflect on your current life situation and apply my step-by-step guide to having faith in God to whatever you’re going through right now so that you can enjoy strong and steadfast faith in God after I reveal to you where true faith comes from.
- I will bless you at the end of this video with a powerful free resource to help you develop unshakable faith in God.
Who should watch this video?
Christian women who genuinely want to learn how to have faith in God during hard times when everything is going wrong and it seems impossible. If that’s you, I made this video for you.
Who should NOT watch this video?
People who believe in earning God’s love and favor, which is performance-based religion, also known as law. Legalistic religion is unbiblical, and Jesus rebuked it.
We will not be discussing religious performance law but will be instead focusing on God’s saving grace and faith based on gratitude for your salvation.
Who else should not be watching this video? People who believe in the Santa Clause kind of God who grants you all your wishes upon request. It’s delusional.
People who believe in the prosperity Gospel, the happiness illusion, the toxic positivity, and the perfect life of indulgence without any pain, suffering, adversity, trials, and spiritual growth.
These types of satanic concepts I just mentioned, which are typically promoted by pagans who prey on vulnerable people, will not be discussed here in this video or on my channel ever.
In fact, we will talk extensively not only about suffering in general but also about my own suffering right now and how I persevere through my suffering in faith with fortitude thanks to God’s grace, which is sufficient at all times for any and all of my circumstances.
I will answer very vulnerably and bluntly your question “How do you trust God when life is hard?” “How do you have faith in God when you’re going through hard times?
If you are not looking for the Santa Clause God, the prosperity gospel, the maniac toxic positivity, the performance-based legalistic relationship with God, and the happiness illusion; if you instead want to genuinely know how to have faith in God during hard times, you are in the right place. I’m so glad to have you here.
Please watch this entire video completely, and you will be blessed by my message. I promise. I prepared for you a Biblical spiritual message with practical real-life examples that will show you exactly how to have faith in God when everything is going wrong. I will encourage and empower you!
Make sure that as you watch this entire video, you also take notes diligently for yourself because my message today will change your life if you genuinely set your intentions and take time to listen and hear my message with your undivided attention, wholeheartedly.
My name is Anna Szabo.
I am the founder of OnlineDiscipleshipForWomen.com
My mission for this ministry is to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. I make videos here on YouTube to encourage and empower Christian women; and to do so, I have 7 YouTube channels sharing Christian devotionals, poems, meditations, prayers, and my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show.
All 7 of my YouTube channels for Christian women are linked in the description box below for you to subscribe.
Subscribe to this channel right now and make sure to turn on notifications bell so that you don’t miss out on my new videos every week. Comment below “I subscribed” and I’ll make sure to respond to you personally.
Today is March 2nd 2021. This is vídeo number one on this new YouTube channel where share with Christian women helpful spiritual advice for everyday challenges.
Let me be frank.
I have lived through many seasons of adversity. I was molested and abused by my mother. I was beaten, bullied, attempted suicide twice, experienced teen pregnancy and miscarriage, domestic violence, homelessness, divorce… Just to name a few hardships I endured in my 38 years of life on this planet.
Learning how to have faith in God during difficult times has changed my life and made it so much more peaceful and joyful.
Peace doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. Joy doesn’t mean I put on a show of maniac pretentious happiness every day.
That is the difference between metaphysical make-believe faith in self and genuine Biblical faith in God.
My peace and joy both come from my eternal faith in Christ and not from any temporary external influences, and most definitely not from believing in myself as a powerful being. My peace and joy are based on my hope in Christ, which comes from God’s word: the Bible.
I’m often asked:
“How do you maintain faith in God despite all the struggles?”
Developing and practicing my faith skills over time has allowed me to be consistently hopeful and productive in life, even during very difficult seasons of adversity, uncertainty, doubt, and pain.
And it is not in my own power but in the power of Christ in me. Glory to God!
Sometimes people ask me:
“How do you stay positive when everything is going wrong?”
And to that I can say this: toxic positivity leads to self-resentment and self-harm.
I’m not positive. I’m hopeful.
Sometimes life rocks. Sometimes life sucks. I am honest with myself whenever my life rocks and I celebrate, I rejoice. I am honest with myself whenever my life sucks, and I celebrate God’s goodness and I rejoice in His promises but I also cry and feel sorry for myself and I mourn my pain, suffering, and loss. I’m not positive.
I am hopeful.
Positivity is fake, pretentious, staged.
Hope is eternal, Biblical, solid, consistent, genuine, reliable, and powerful.
You’ve clicked on this video because you are facing adversity or doubt or pain or suffering or tragedy or trauma right now.
Today, I will share with you how in the midst of adversity, trauma, and drama, I discovered a new life by discovering faith in God and genuine hope instead of fake toxic positivity.
Though my faith did not happen because of me but because of God’s saving grace, I have learned a lot on my faith journey with God. I’ve learned how to faith in Jesus, even during hard times when it seems impossible and everything is going wrong.
Today, I want to share my knowledge, skills, and insights with you so that you, too, can enjoy the many blessings of having genuine hope and steadfast, strong, enduring faith in God.
Faith in God is only possible for you if you discover, face, explore, accept, and embrace God’s saving grace in your life.
I’ll explain how, when, and why it happens.
There’s one thing we all know for sure about life: it’s seasonal. Everyone’s life sometimes rocks and sometimes sucks.
How can you persevere through the sucking parts of life hoping for an exciting future and remaining productive instead of spiraling down into a deep dark depression or even giving up completely?
How do you maintain your faith in God despite all the struggles?
How do you stay strong, productive, hopeful, optimistic, enthusiastic, and grounded in genuine faith when everything in life goes haywire?
The answer is Jesus.
To have hope in Jesus, you must get to know Jesus personally.
To get to know Jesus personally, you must spend time with Jesus in fellowship, worship, prayer, and silence.
To be in a relationship with Jesus, to get to know Him, you must take the time to read God’s word about Jesus, to examine and notice the presence of Jesus in you daily life, to hear the testimony of other believers, which I will share with you today, and you must invest genuine effort into your relationship with Jesus.
Jesus isn’t Santa.
Here’s a comment I recently received on my main YouTube channel:
K R writes:
“I am the only parent to a teenager, and I am alone. I am struggling with getting out of bed and functioning. I am overwhelmed. I’m so weary. I have to have my fake positive Christian talk and face.”
This approach is too familiar. I used to put on a fake smiley face, suppress my pain, and dissociate from my reality of suffering through adversity and afflictions and instead pretend to be happy all the time.
But it led me to bad places.
The suppressed and unprocessed feelings and emotions accumulated and compounded over time and resulted in my various addictions and eventually in a severely suicidal depression.
Also, fake happiness and toxic positivity kept me walking in my own power and consequently separated me from Jesus.
“Jesus said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in hardships, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Today, I don’t put on a fake smiley face.
I feel all my emotions during hardships and seasons of adversity like what I’m going through right now. I am weak in my pier and that is why I need Jesus. I’m going to boast today in this video about about my own weakness and how Christ empowers me to persevere in faith with fortitude. I’m fully human and I’m fully present in my real life. I don’t pretend to live in a make-believe reality. I struggle through adversity in my real reality, right now, and that is how I grow in my faith and how my relationship with Jesus gets stronger and more intimate.
I don’t hide my fears and anxieties.
I cast my anxiety on God who cares.
1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you.”
This word from God is so rich in meaning!
First, it tells me that it’s ok to have anxieties and troubles, because the word of God tells me WHEN having anxiety, I should reach out for Him.
Also, the word of God teaches me that God is expecting for me to need His comfort. When in the past I would put on my fake smiley face and dissociate from my troubled reality, I didn’t need God’s comfort. I did not need Jesus when I lived in my own power.
Eventually I came to the end of myself.
I admitted my humanness and weakness.
I admitted that I need Jesus.
Today, aware of my need for Jesus, desiring God’s comfort and presence, being real and vulnerable as a human, not pretending to be God myself, having genuine faith in actual real sovereign God of the universe, I need Jesus every day because I struggle on my own, I am afflicted, I am weak, I am powerless, I have troubles, doubts, insecurities, fears, anxiety, so I need God’s divine comfort.
I need the power of Christ.
Having genuine Biblical faith in God instead of delusional metaphysical faith in myself… saved my life. And it changed me.
Let me be frank: I graduated from four universities, two of them on full scholarship, three of them with high honors. And one thing for sure: they don’t teach you there how to have faith in God, how to deal with adversity effectively, how to persevere through unbearable seasons of suffering, and how to push through indescribable emotional or physical or mental pain when life sucks, while also growing spiritually from those hardships.
How to get faith in God, how to start having faith in God, how to have more faith in God, and how to have faith in God during hard times – these are not taught in school. No one teaches you this yet having faith in God and persevering through adversity is the most essential skill for survival in today’s world where 800,000 people kill themselves every year from hopelessness and suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in America.
You’re left to your own devices to figure out how to have faith in God during hard times so that you can remain hopeful, persevere, survive hardships, and thrive.
My mission is to help alleviate suicide among women globally by sharing hope in Christ. That’s why I started this channel.
In my life, I’ve experienced a lot of trauma.
A great deal of pain and suffering has been inflicted on me by people. I was mentally and physically abused and even tortured. I was rescued from domestic violence and had to hide in a shelter for battered women.
As a child, I was hated by my own mother who bullied, harassed, and terrorized me every day. I never had a father. I was raped twice. I experienced many illnesses.
I found myself homeless, without any money or support, in a foreign country, without speaking the language in 2009 here in America. I lived in a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Stone Mountain, GA while fighting three legal battles simultaneously.
God saved me, I didn’t save myself.
God’s saving grace is the reason for my perseverance, not my own power.
I have no power on my own. None at all.
My list of adverse life circumstances continues. I’m sharing it with you just so you can witness my testimony for yourself.
I believed in true love three times, and I am divorced three times: all my husbands were abusive. But they were only a replica of my mother. The abuse I endured as an adult was something I was groomed for by my mother who violently abused and hated me for decades, regularly telling me that she wanted me to die and that I did not deserve to live or to be loved.
To cope with my suffering, I had developed addictions… and recovery to sobriety took many years and a great deal of trauma healing. I know what indescribable pain feels like. The kind of pain that suffocates you and overwhelms you completely.
I came many times face-to-face with such hopelessness and despair that I didn’t want to live anymore. I tried to take my own life twice.
I became an alcoholic and an addict. I hit the rock bottom and came to the end of myself, my strength, my hope, and my ability after suppressing my feelings and ignoring my adversity for a long time.
I ran out of my own imaginary power.
God saved me when I hit the rock bottom.
God gave me a steadfast faith, a new life, a new identity, a new spirit, a new heart, new habits, and He made me brand-new, born again. God brought me back to life.
It happened because of His saving Grace: not because of me but because of Jesus.
God delivered me through all the afflictions, addictions, and adversity; and He blessed me with steadfast, strong, supernatural faith after I invited Jesus into my heart to be my Lord and Savior.
Now, I’m sharing my faith and testimony with you because I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that God is kind, that He has a plan, that His plan is good, that we are a part of God’s good plan, that with our free will God wants us to choose to trust Him and lean on Him, and that God works all things together for good.
Faith is key to persevere and peace.
Yet, to have a steadfast, enduring faith, you must first know, understand, accept, and embrace God’s saving grace.
Without knowing and accepting God’s amazing grace, it is impossible to have true faith. To accept God’s grace, you have to realize your humanness and your own lack of power.
You have to realize how much YOU need Jesus, and you have to choose faith in God using your God-given free will.
What is God’s grace?
1 Peter 1:3 explains what God’s Grace is:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
This one verse explains where my faith comes from (from God who is the father of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ), why God gave my faith to me (because of His mercy when I was without hope and dead spiritually), and what the result of my faith is (a living hope in Christ).
Where does my hope come from? Jesus.
Where does my faith come from? Jesus.
The reason why I am new and I have a new, better life today is not me: it is God, the Father of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He, the eternal sovereign God of this universe, gave me a living hope.
How? Through Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is where my living hope comes from, and my living hope is where my new identity and new life come from. The living hope I’m talking about will be mentioned again and again today in thus video as I teach you how to have faith in God completely.
The woman who wrote comments on my recent videos on my main channel said:
“I am so weak. Why aren’t your prayers working for me? How do you make yourself function?”
My answer to her was James 2:26.
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without works also dead.” James 2:26
I do not and cannot make myself function because I am broken, powerless, and needy. I take action every day through the power of Christ in me. When I am weak, God’s power makes me strong. I am weak on my own but in Christ I am strong.
This is why the topic of faith is so important to understand. This woman – who’s asking how come my prayer on YouTube didn’t transform her life instantly – expected a Santa Clause God to give her a perfect life after I prayed for her on YouTube in comments. She said this was her expectation of me. She had hope in me, not hope in God.
I’m not God. There’s no reason to hope in me. Everyone should hope in the Lord!
I hope in Christ, I do not hope in me.
Now, me hoping in Christ, caused me to take a faithful action on her behalf.
Me taking the time and putting an effort into praying for this woman was a direct product of MY faith in God.
My genuine powerful prayer to lift this woman up to God was the work of MY faith in God. She had her faith in me.
I have to tell you a secret, you’ll be shocked: I am not Santa and I don’t have magic powers to transform people’s lives through YouTube comments.
I’m you’re shocked…
Instead of having a grateful heart that God answered her prayers and sent me to be here for her, to listen to her, to fellowship with her, to be on her prayer warrior team, to lift her spirit up, instead this woman blamed me openly for me not fixing her life through my YouTube prayer.
That was her expectation.
She hoped on me.
Instead of taking a productive action as the direct outcome of HER faith in God when God gave her His powerful prayer warrior in me, this woman decided to wait for a Santa Clause God to grant her her wishes while also blaming me for her inaction. That is not faith.
That is called entitlement, a delusion.
Such a delusional entitlement has absolutely nothing to do with having faith in God.
YOUR faith results in YOUR action.
YOUR faith causes YOU to take faithful action.
YOU must act out of YOUR faith in God.
Out of YOUR belief in God YOU must do your good deeds through the power of Christ in you, not in your own power, not in my power…
That’s the real expectation.
The expectation of having faith in God is for YOU to have it and for YOU to act in faith. I can’t have faith for you. I can’t fix your life. I can’t save you. I am not God.
I can’t be the source of your hope.
You can’t be the source of your hope.
The source of hope is Jesus.
Me acting on this woman’s behalf by genuinely praying for her resulted from MY faith in God. She was unable to receive the gift God blessed her with through my prayer. Why was she unable to receive the blessing? Because she had an entitled heart and misplaced her expectations and her hope, as as the responsibility for her life.
This practical real-life example demonstrates WHY … we must understand what faith in God is and differentiate faith in God from what it is not.
Let’s define what true faith actually is and how to know if YOU have faith in God.
What Is Faith Definition?
How do you define faith? What is faith?
There are several definitions of the word “faith” available on Google:
- Complete trust or confidence in someone or something
- Firm belief in something for which there is no proof
- Unconditional belief in anything
- High degree of trust or confidence in something or someone
- Very substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
I agree with all of those definitions.
Yet, I must add to the list. And here’s why.
That is why I share my own definition of faith through my poem called “Faith.”
I’d like to share it with you now.
“Faith”
Faith is a state of human being.
Without it, we can’t survive for long.
It’s when we’re future clearly seeing,
To greater plan when we belong.
Faith is a state of human soul,
Which has to feel eternal hope.
Without hope, there is an aimless hole,
Without hope, with life we cannot cope.
Faith is a state of human heart,
Which longs for love and for affection.
Without faith, we quickly fall apart.
Without it, there is no genuine connection.
Faith is a state of human mind,
Which thrives on certainty and clarity.
Faith gives us promises of every kind:
Forgiveness, freedom, and prosperity…
Faith is the key to joy and peace.
Faith is essential to salvation.
Faith helps our fortitude increase.
Faith is life’s solid foundation.
7/13/19 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
This is my definition of faith.
Faith in God cannot co-exist with faith in self. Abiding in Christ and walking in your own power are two conflicting concepts.
I am going to share with you how I personally struggle with God on my faith journey right now. It is an everyday battle, but God always wins, and you’re witnessing God’s victory right now.
It’s going to be apparent in a moment.
I am very goal-oriented. I like knowing what’s ahead. I like being able to control things. I want certainly and predictability.
I am fully human.
So, my struggle with God is this: I want to have control but God wants me to surrender control to Him.
God wants me to choose to trust His plan. And I want to trust God if He reveals to me what’ His plan is… So, we fight and argue: me and God. And … God always wins!
Let’s talk about…
Reliance on God vs Self-Reliance
I am 38 years old. For the first three decades of my life, I had complete faith in myself. I relied on myself and not anyone else. This was before I failed myself repeatedly, before I hit the rock bottom, before I got to know God, and before I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
I failed myself miserably. I came to the end of myself. I felt powerless and hopeless.
The Bible is clear: we must step out of our own power, strength, and wisdom and step into Christ’s power, strength, and wisdom .
How? Through faith-based action.
It’s hard to do. What is so hard about it? It requires complete surrender of control.
We must lean not on our own understanding in life. We must trust in the Lord with everything. This requires giving up control. And it is scary… it is hard.
Surrender feels like falling backwards into the arms of God trusting that He’ll be there to catch you from crushing.
This is very difficult.
In 2014, I fell on my knees in the middle of my living room late at night, wept, invited God to take control, and gave my life to Christ that night. I asked Jesus to be my personal Lord and Savior; and I surrendered myself to Him completely.
God controls my life.
God is the source of my blessings, faith, and strength. I am here alive and productive today not because of my own power but because of the power of Christ in me.
Soto all the Christian women who have asking me: “How do you have faith in God during hard times?”… here’s my answer:
I can do all things through Christ.
God gave me my ministry Online DiscipleshipForWomen.com to do His work not only IN me but also THROUGH me.
By the way, if this video is helping you right now, let me know in the comments below: is God touching your heart right now through my testimony? Is God stirring up hope and faith within you as I’m sharing this message?
Just a quick disclosure: I have a doctorate in Criminal Justice and a master’s in Business Administration. So, I promise you I question everything. I dare you to leverage your critical thinking skills when it comes to faith, Jesus, God, and eternity.
I pondered and questioned everything when it comes to God. Today, I know that God is my creator, that I am God’s child, made in His image, here on earth to do His work, the work He prepared in advance for me to do, and once I do His divine work, I will go to heaven to spend my eternity with Jesus when my time here is up.
These truths about myself and my life I received from God’s word. After understanding that Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, came here on earth to surrender His life so that I could have mine, I was overcome with gratitude for my salvation .
Once I fully – intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and wholeheartedly – understood what happened on the cross, that Jesus was sacrificed for my sake… I wept, fell on my knees, and surrendered my life to Christ. What happened?
I accepted God’s grace.
Not in theory but in practice.
I understood how broken and weak and powerless and hopeless I am on my own and how much I need a Savior – Jesus Christ. I surrendered myself to God.
Still, God and argue because I am human.
And I’m going to share with you a very unique personal struggle I am having with God right now. You will witness how to have faith in God during hard times when everything is going wrong, like in my life right now.
We have defined and discussed faith in general so far. Next, let’s define and discuss faith in God.
What Is Faith in God?
To answer the question “What is faith in God?” we need a solid source of truthful information. Where can we learn about faith in God? We have the foundation of faith in God, and that is the word of God.
Romans 10:17 says this:
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. No one can have faith without hearing the message about Christ.
This is where Biblical faith comes from: it’s based on hope in Jesus; it is Gospel-based.
We now know where faith comes from. Let’s see if there, in the Bible, we can find the definition of what faith is…
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith like this:
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. Faith is the assurance (confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen (the conviction of their reality – faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses).
Remember this because later in this video you can use this definition of faith to examine me as I struggle and you can hold me accountable; and I’ll show you how.
We now know where faith comes from and what faith in God is, according to the word of God: the Bible. We know that faith in God can’t co-exist with faith in yourself. Biblical faith is the opposite of metaphysical faith.
You have to choose whether you believe in the power of God or in your own power.
Now, let’s discuss the details of HAVING faith in God. Practically, how to have full faith in God, how to have faith in God completely in our everyday experiences.
Anna Szabo
Anna Szabo
Faith in God means believing wholeheartedly that God included you in His plan, which is good, trusting that YOU are a part of God’s divine good plan.
Now we know what faith is (hope for things unseen), where faith comes from (the word of God about Jesus Christ), and that faith must be personal (practically applicable to you).
Next, I want to ensure that we differentiate what faith is from what it isn’t. Faith is not a theory. It’s what you believe about God and yourself as God’s child and how you apply your beliefs in your everyday life through your decision-making and practically through consistent action.
Faith is inseparable from your actions.
James 2:17 makes this very clear:
Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do good things.
So, faith clearly is not a theory. It’s a blueprint for action every day for you personally, for me personally.
If you have faith in God, you believe certain things and you act a certain way.
The foundation of faith in God as a Christian woman is Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you a little bit about…
My Experience With Faith
I grew up having faith in my own ability, so my faith was metaphysical: I was the source of power in my life. I began to question my approach to thinking about faith when it got to the point of being partly metaphysical and partly Christian.
What do I mean by that?
I believed in Jesus; and I believed in myself. Equally.
I believed that Jesus was the source of my blessings, wisdom, and strength, while also believing that I myself was the source of wisdom, strength, and blessings, too.
This point of view was in itself very conflicting and confusing. So, I was conflicted from within and very confused.
I had to sort through my thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives to discover what I truly knew and how I actually understood faith and my identity: who I was in relation to God and who was the god I believed in.
Many people call themselves Metaphysical Christians and believe in all things. They believe that there are no differences whatsoever among any worldviews. Faith to them is faith in God, and God is whoever you personally imagine, including yourself being god.
It has not worked for me.
It’s false. We are mere humans, without any powers, and there’s only one true God.
How did I figure out what I believe?
Let me tell you a little bit about…
How I Figured Out My Faith
To figure out my faith in God, I relied on my experience, educational and professional background, everything I read (atheistic, Christian, metaphysical), what I saw during my worldwide traveling adventures, my life in multiple countries, and, most importantly, my relationship with Jesus Christ and my own personal testimony.
Pondering God’s word, questioning God’s plan, and arguing with God every day is HOW my genuine convictions regarding faith in God came about.
I will l share them with you in a minute.
After I share my convictions, I encourage YOU to question, doubt, and ponder, as well as research this topic so that YOU can figure out what YOU believe wholeheartedly. It’s up to YOU to figure out YOUR faith. Faith in God is personal.
To help you figure out who you are and what God says about you, I want to bless you with the gift of free powerful ebook.
It’s called “52 Things God Says About You,” and the link to get my ebook is in the description box below.
What is Biblical faith in God?
I believe with deep conviction that genuine Biblical faith in God has 15 characteristics.
We are talking about Biblical faith, not metaphysical faith. We are discussing faith in Jesus Christ, not faith in yourself.
What is Biblical faith in action, as it is lived out in our everyday lives as Christian women?
Biblical faith can only be defined by the truth we find in the Bible: the sacred word of God. Let’s look at the Scriptures to find out what Biblical faith is, according to God’s word. If you want to know what genuine Biblical faith is, here are 15 characteristics of Biblical faith in God.
These are my personal convictions.
1. Biblical Faith in God Requires You To Step Out of Yourself and Step Into The Power of Christ.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, this precisely is why “metaphysical” and “Christian” are the words that can’t be used together when talking about having strong faith because these two words contradict one another in their very substance.
Metaphysical is faith in yourself. I used to have metaphysical faith for decades.
Biblical faith is faith in Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, I came to the end of myself in my 30s and hit the rock bottom where I had a personal encounter with Jesus and gave my life to Him. I’ll link my testimony in the description box below.
The word of God makes this essential distinction between metaphysical and Biblical very clear.
1 Corinthians 2:5 establishes this truth:
“Your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
I wrote a poem about my experiences of abiding in Christ instead of living in my own power. It is a daily struggle between the flesh and the spirit within me.
To demonstrate this daily struggle practically, I’m going to share with you my poem called “Abiding In Christ vs Living In My Own Power.”
“Abiding In Christ vs Living In My Own Power”
Lord, you’re my eternal leader and guide.
In you every day I wholeheartedly abide.
I obtain, observe, and obey your Word.
It’s my heavenly strength and my spiritual sword.
Lord, on my own, I feel wicked and weak.
I get selfish and drift: worldly comfort I seek.
But in you, I feel purposeful and Spirit-driven.
I use wisely the talents in advance to me given.
Lord, you’re my vine, and and I am your branch.
I want to bear fruit but my journey is strange.
I don’t understand it and frankly resent it.
I can’t comprehend it. So, I condemn it.
Lord, do I trust you? I trust you, indeed!
You’ve always been near and fulfilled my each need.
But my future is foggy. It is unknown.
I want for my future to me to be shown.
Lord, I am scared of what future might hold.
What if my life will as tragic unfold?
I want to know future. I want to control it.
I want to impact it. I want to uncoil it.
Lord, it’s impossible for me to be you.
So, I surrendered whatever I knew!
You give me peace, joy, and contentment.
You take away my childish resentment.
Lord, I abide in you. I abandon my own power.
I discover your plan daily. Your Word I devour.
You reveal yourself to me, Lord, undoubtedly.
I surrender my control to you and live astoundingly.
7/29/19 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we know that Biblical faith requires you to step out of yourself and step into the power of Christ.
Next we will discuss the second characteristic of Biblical faith.
2. Biblical Faith in God Is About You Becoming New In Christ.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we know that Biblical faith is about giving up your old ways, following the teachings of Jesus on how to live, think, and be, and ultimately conquering (which means overcoming) the world (which means the ungodly ways of living, thinking, and being).
What exactly does this mean practically?
Let me give you a practical example from my personal life. It’s a hard one but you know I share with you very authentically across all seven of my YouTube channels.
If you like authentic, bold, honest, unsugarcoated, real videos, subscribe to my channel to be notified whenever I publish more authentic videos for you.
Here’s the harsh truth about me…
Coming from a family of adulterous alcoholics who tried to kill me multiple times, it’s a miracle that I’m still alive, sharing my faith with you right now on thus YouTube channel for Christian women, spreading God’s word in this video, and working hard here on earth at 38 years old to help encourage and empower you.
It truly is a miracle to be 38 years old after as much trauma as was inflicted on me.
God wanted me here, so I am still here but it is a miracle to be alive, sane, functional, productive, and effective.
I don’t take life for granted.
Raised in such a violent and harmful home environment, I too became an adulterous alcoholic and an addict.
I was even once got locked up in jail for physically attacking a hospital security guard in Russia.
So what does conquering the world mean in my case, how dies God help me?
Conquering the world, in my case, means leveraging the power of Christ in me to overcome my old ways of living life, being born again as His creation, and following Him wholeheartedly by thinking and living as His disciple, a child of God.
That’s why you won’t see me drunk walking the streets looking for physical fighting, alcohol, or hookups anymore.
I don’t get locked up in jail anymore, I don’t sleep around anymore. I don’t get drunk anymore. But it’s only by the grace of God and not because of my own ability.
I live a single, celibate, sober, simple, and peaceful life with God today, and I experience genuine joy every day.
Not because of me but because of Christ in me who makes me new, born again, and different in His power. I function through Christ in me, not on my own.
In my own power, I can’t do anything.
All this is possible through my faith in Jesus. I’m newly born in Him. God gave me a new identity, a new spirit, a new heart, a renewed mind, and a whole new life. I left my old ways in the past.
I left in the past also my guilt and shame after I accepted God’s saving grace.
I accepted forgiveness from God.
I am forgiven. I am new.
I am of God. I am not of the world.
1 John 5:4 explains this in detail:
“Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”
God took me from a lost and confused addict to a woman of God, a disciple of Christ, a helper to Jesus Himself.
Surrendering everything I had (my life, my habits, my identity, my desires, my control…) surrendering it all to God allowed me to become a woman of God.
Thanks to God’s saving grace, I am who I am, how I am, and where I am.
Yet, I struggle every day. I am human.
God’s grace is sufficient for me in all my circumstances and helps me endure, persevere, and share my testimony with you to encourage and empower Christian women.
Here’s my powerful poem about God’s transformation of my identity from a sex addict to a disciple of Jesus Christ.
“I Am a Woman of God”
I am a woman of God, just like Mary, Martha, Rachel, Ruth, and Esther.
I am as strong and as passionate about God as my every female ancestor.
I’m like Anna from Luke 2 who was single, worshiped God, fasted, and prayed.
I’ve been single for years as God’s plan for my life I’ve wholeheartedly obeyed.
1 Corinthians 7 says “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
This applies to my sexuality, too, because I also am fully human.
By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me is not without effect:
He taught me how His temple, which is my body, to genuinely respect.
I am a woman of God, 1 Corinthians 7:7 says God gifted me with singleness.
Being at peace and savoring solitude is the reason for my authentic cheerfulness.
I am a woman of God, and my everyday main priority is He.
His glory on display, His light to the world, His masterpiece God created me to be.
9/26/2020 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we understand that Biblical faith is about surrendering your old self to God and becoming new in Christ.
Next we will discuss the third characteristic of Biblical faith.
3. Biblical Faith in God Offers You Divine Healing.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we are assured by the word of God that Biblical faith offers healing by the power of Christ.
However, we must do two things before we can benefit from it: believe and take action based on our belief.
Here’s a real-life practical example.
I believed that Jesus healed me from sexual addiction, so whenever I would receive a bootie call, I would take action out of my faith and stand strong in the power of Christ by saying NO. A faithful action, in my case, meant not answering the bootie call and not sleeping around anymore.
Two years ago, I was at a poetry reading open mic night, and the hostess shared how when guys call her for sex, she has no power to resist.
I know exactly what it feels like.
Here’s how Jesus helped me with that.
First, I accepted Jesus’ healing through my faith because of the word of God about Christ and because my personal encounter with Jesus.
Second, I took action out of my new identity as a precious child of God, a special, valuable, loved daughter of the king of the entire universe. The action I took was inaction and stillness. It worked.
Faith works if we act out of our faith.
I hope my personal and practical real-life example helps you understand how faith works every day in our lives as Christian women. Faith works if we do the work.
Here’s a story of the blind man whom Jesus told his sight was recovered.
This is John 9.
Jesus saw a man blind from birth. Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” Jesus told him, “wash in the Pool.” So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
What would you do if Jesus told you your sight was recovered? What action would you take in that situation deploying your faith? You must first have faith and then take action out of your faith.
That was what the blind man did.
That’s how faith works.
The blind man believe in Jesus.
The blind man took action in faith.
The blind man was healed through faith.
Mark 10:52 reports faith in action:
“And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.”
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we are assured by the word of God that Biblical faith offers healing by the power of Christ.
Next we will discuss the fourth characteristic of Biblical faith.
4. Biblical Faith in God Allows You To Believe That Good Things Are Waiting In Your Future.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we see from God’s word that Biblical faith allows you to focus on expecting good things in your future.
“Future” means that you can’t see the good things yet, but you believe in them already right now though you might actually be going through hard times. You expect good things to happen for you.
Here’s a real-life practical example.
I was suffering from suicidal depression in 2016 and 2017. I didn’t even want to get up for my bathroom needs. My dirty dishes were everywhere. Floors went without cleaning for months. I had no bed sheets and slept on a bare mattress.
My laundry was everywhere, and I didn’t wash my hair for weeks. I didn’t want to live. I was tired of abuse in my marriage.
But!
I did write poetry and devotionals for YOU so that YOU would benefit from them one day. Just to be clear: at the time I was depressed and severely suicidal, but… at that time I was thinking about YOU in my future and I took action in faith writing poetry and devotionals for YOU but of course you weren’t there in my past present. What I mean is that I’m taking now about it, and it’s my past, but at the time that past was my present and I was suicidal, I was thinking about you, and so you were the good thing in my future.
And now that future is here so you are the good thing that happened because I believed during hard times and kept my faith. Now, you’re watching this video…
It’s a miracle!
It’s how faith works.
In my past present, in my abusive marriage, manipulated, threatened with violence, gaslighted, stonewalled, dehumanized, and cheated on, I was alone, in bed, unshowered, depressed, and suicidal. But I was believing in my ministry one day, I was believing that one day I’ll encourage and empower you with my genuine unsugarcoated testimony.
Though YOU weren’t there where I was suffering at the time , I believed that one day I’d talk to you and that my story would be for God’s glory, that my testimony would help encourage you to persevere through adversity in your own life.
That was all in the future for me, YOU were in the future for me, though it’s hard for you to imagine now when YOU are watching this video in YOUR present.
YOU were the good thing I believed would happen in my future when I was going through all that suffering in my past which was my present, in which I was envisioning helping YOU through this video, which was in my imaginary future.
And now it’s a reality.
That’s his faith works.
Today, you are watching this video filmed in March of 2021. In March of 2917, I was depressed and suicidal but I took action out of faith because I believed that in my future God would use my testimony to help you. That’s faith in action.
Today, I have my ministry Online Discipleship For Women and this YouTube channel to share my faith and hope with you. Please subscribe right now to get encouraged and empowered with spiritual yet practical Christian videos every week.
You are the good thing that was unseen back then in my past when I was suicidally depressed. You and my ministry.
This Christian ministry was my strong conviction back then. I used my faith to take one breath at a time and hold on to life and not destroy myself.
Having hope in Christ, I was believing that one day God would use me to encourage YOU and help you have faith in God during hard times. And now you are watching this video. This is how faith works.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we see from God’s word that Biblical faith allows you to believe that good things are waiting for you in your future.
Next we will discuss the fifth characteristic of Biblical faith.
5. Biblical Faith in God Recognizes One and Only True God, The Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, it’s essential to know who God is. Biblical faith implies trust in one and only God: the father of Christ.
You don’t have to imagine who God is because God reveals Himself to you through His word, the Bible.
The Bible is God-breathed word, the word God Himself breathed into existence.
What does this even mean? How did God breathe book pages into existence?
Just think of a girl locked up in jail for violently abusing a hospital security guard while drunk who is right now talking on YouTube in this video sharing her God-ordained testimony with YOU this very second. Im going to link my testimony in the description box below so that you can see how my journey with God had unfolded.
“I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it.”
John 12:49
God breathed into existence these words you’re hearing from me right now. These words are coming to you off the screen of your electronic device right now because God breathed them into existence.
This testimony isn’t coming from me.
It’s coming through me.
Same thing with the Bible.
It’s the book God breathed via the Holy Spirit through mere humans like you and me who wrote out the words breathed by God through them.
The Bible didn’t come from Paul or Mark or John or Peter. It came through them from God. That’s the word ghat tells us who God is, and Biblical faith requires that we believe in our one and only true God, the father of our lord Jesus Christ.
“Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, it’s essential to know who God is. Biblical faith recognizes one and only true God, the one who sent Jesus to die on the Cross for our sins so that we can have life of peace, joy, and freedom.
Next we will discuss the sixth characteristic of Biblical faith.
6. Biblical Faith in God Calls You To Stand Firmly on The 3573 Promises of God In The Bible.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, it’s critical to know God’s promises. Biblical faith encourages us to believe in the 3573 promises of God.
I wrote a poem about God’s promises in the Bible. I wrote this poem when I was going through hard times and faith in God seemed impossible. I read through my journals and saw that on any given day I could feel good, the bad, hopeful, then depressed… and that gave me a profound spiritual breakthrough that I can’t ever trust my wavering emotions but must stand firmly on the solid ground of God’s eternal Biblical promises.
Here’s my poem called…
“Standing on God’s Promises”
Life is a series of seasons,
With moments of sorrow followed by happy moments.
To question God we have many reasons,
Especially, when facing some devastating disappointments.
Sometimes, we question God’s very existence,
Or just His presence in our lives.
We may confront the idea of God’s goodness with resistance,
Especially when grief our daily emotions drives.
Our emotions are not a very reliable source of information.
How we feel changes often too randomly.
That’s why to confidently walk toward our destination,
We need to immerse ourselves in truth extendedly.
We need to understand and believe God’s faithfulness.
We need to embrace His eternal promises.
We don’t need to make them up or guess –
Reading His word is what confidence encompasses.
In the Bible, there are 3573 promises,
The word “promise” itself occurs 50 times.
End of suffering, protection, and forgiveness,
Peace and joy are guaranteed to us always and not just sometimes.
God’s promises are the only solid ground to stand on.
Everything else is unstable and temporary.
His word is the truth for us to lean on,
So that our lives can be for His glory and extraordinary.
That’s what faith is all about.
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Matthew 21:22
Biblical faith calls you to stand firmly on the 3573 promises of God in the Bible and pray to God about all your needs.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, it’s critical to know God’s promises. Biblical faith encourages us to believe in the 3573 promises of God and not follow our wavering emotions.
Next we will discuss the seventh characteristic of Biblical faith.
7. Biblical Faith in God Requires You To Persevere Through Adversity.
Biblical faith guarantees that we will have trials in life. In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we are required to remember that God did not promise us a rainbow-unicorny life; He promised trials and tribulations; so we must be ready to persevere through adversity so that our faith can become steadfast (unwavering) and we must become complete, not lacking anything.
I wrote a poem about this when facing my own heart-breaking, mind-boggling troubles and surrendering to God daily while crying on my knees for hours.
My poem is called…
“I Trust You With The Troubles In This World”
Dear God,
You said we will have troubles in this world.
I would have surely preferred to avoid all my trials.
But you also promised to defeat every sword,
And, with no battles to fight, how could I ever feel the perfect love as your special child?
You promised protection, you promised peace.
You asked to not lean on my own comprehension.
So, as I’m standing here, crying on my knees,
I trust you still and your perfect plan for my eternal salvation.
Without a test, there’s no testimony.
James 1:3 assures us…
“For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we must remember: Biblical faith guarantees that we will have trials in life. Biblical faith requires you to persevere through adversity so that you can grow spiritually and your faith may become steadfast.
Next we will discuss the eighth characteristic of Biblical faith.
8. Biblical Faith in God Demands Strength From You Through The Power of Christ In You.
Biblical faith requires strength from us. Don’t be strong in your own power, be strong in Christ. Biblical faith guarantees that we will have trials in life and asks that we surrender our own power and live in the power of Christ, through whom all things are possible.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, we must understand this instruction:
“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong
1 Corinthians 16:13
The Bible teaches us to “act like men,” meaning entering spiritual adulthood and leaving our childish ways behind.
Practicing Biblical faith requires that we stand firm in the faith as mature adults who thought through what faith in God actually means and why.
To be strong during hard times, you must surrender your own power, admit that you are weak, and ask God fir help because in your weakness His strength is displayed and perfected. I wrote a poem about this.
My poem about being strong by being weak is called …
“I’m Surrendered To Thee”
I am fearfully and wonderfully made
By God Almighty, the Great I Am.
Old things all past away at once,
And I am a new creation in Christ.
I die in my flesh and walk in the Spirit,
I choose kindness and humbleness.
The harder the journey, the more I grow from it.
You offer to me no condemnation
And you provide an escape
From every temptation.
I choose to lose so I can win,
I’m prudent, not simple, following your written will.
I go through trials and learn my lessons daily but I often stumble.
I know you prune me to be more fruitful, but my life I often shamble.
Please lift this heavy burden off of me,
You say your yoke is easy.
I’m surrendered to Thee.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, you need to understand that Biblical faith demands strength from you through the power of Christ in you, which you can only tap into by surrendering your own human power.
Next we will discuss the ninth characteristic of Biblical faith.
9. Biblical Faith in God Is a Shield to Protect You from Evil.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we must realize that faith isn’t a theory to talk about here on YouTube, it’s not a philosophical concept we discuss and then just go on about our lives in the same old worldly ways.
Faith is a blueprint for every decision.
Biblical faith shields you from evil.
What does this mean? How can faith be a shield? Let me offer you a very practical real-life example of how faith shields me from evil. I know this will be relatable.
Imagine a Friday night. I’m home alone and friends call me to go out dancing at the night club. I live a single and celibate lifestyle. It’s my own choice and I’m not doing it for anyone by me and my relationship with Jesus Christ.
Is it a good idea for me to get out there at night to go clubbing given that people drink heavily on Friday nights?
That’s where faith comes into play.
What decision will I make?
Will I throw myself out there at night where adventure-seeking, drunk people are looking to hook up? Or will I use my faith to shield me from evil?
What does God say about it? I pray.
God protects me with His shield, which is faith. I stay home, write, read, paint, cook, workout, make Christian videos, and share my faith through my Christian podcast for women The Anna Szabo Show.
Is faith tangible enough in this scenario?
Yes, of course.
Faith in God and His good plan is my shield for protection from evil.
Ephesians 6:16 instructs us:
“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”
Biblical faith is a shield to protect you from evil: from drugs, from one night stands, from driving drunk, from getting involved with people who add no value to your life, from making poor financial decisions, from doing the things you know you’ll regret, from compromising your values, from violating your own boundaries, from wasting your time, and from perishing.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we must realize that faith is a blueprint for every decision and every action every day in every area of life.
Next we will discuss the tenths characteristic of Biblical faith.
10. Biblical Faith in God Instructs You To Trust God Even In Hardships.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, you must consider that Biblical faith instructs you to trust God even during the prolonged and unbearable seasons of adversity.
I’ve been through divorce, depression, suicide, homelessness, poverty, miscarriage, domestic violence, addictions…
In divorce, depression, suicidal ideation, miscarriage, addictions, homelessness, domestic violence, and all types of hardships, we are called to not lean on what we can and cannot understand.
We’re called to trust in the Lord.
God has a plan. His plan is good.
You are a part of God’s good plan.
God will help you.
God will make your path straight.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
During my divorce from an abusive husband, reflecting on my walk with God, I wrote this poem.
“You’re Leading My Walk”
Dear God,
You came near when I called you,
And you said to me: “Do not fear.”
You took my right hand and walked with me,
And though all my trials you’ve always been near.
You comforted me and encouraged,
You gave me discernment and wisdom,
You showed me your infinite mercy and grace,
While leading my walk through your kingdom.
Biblical faith instructs you to trust God during hard times, even when faith in God seems impossible.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, remember to nit lean on your own understanding and instead, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Next we will discuss the eleventh characteristic of Biblical faith.
11. Biblical Faith in God Promises You Salvation If You Believe In Jesus Christ as Your Savior.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, remember that the very foundation of Biblical faith is your salvation if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, that Jesus is the son of God, and that Christ is your savior.
Can you pray a simple prayer and just go to heaven? No. You must not only profess with your mouth, but you must also believe in your heart and practice your faith in God with your actions.
Here’s what the Bible says has to happen for you to be in the right standing with God and go to heaven, according to Biblical faith.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
Biblical faith promises you salvation if you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, remember that it is Jesus who is your savior, so don’t try to save yourself!
Next we will discuss the twelfth characteristic of Biblical faith.
12. Biblical Faith in God Helps You Understand The Difficult and Controversial Concepts of Hell and God’s Wrath.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we must not deceive ourselves with selective faith, only believing what makes us feel good from Biblical teachings.
Biblical faith in God teaches us about both heaven and hell. That’s where it gets tough. It takes a lot of hard thinking to reconcile how God can be good and send someone to hell.
Our good God gave us free will. He doesn’t impose Himself on us. He makes Himself known to us but the relationship with Him must be our own choice.
That’s why believing is the first step.
It’s our action.
It’s all in our own hands.
We choose.
We use our mind to either believe in God or something else.
Faith is our choice.
Our eternity is completely up to us.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16:16
For years, I was a part of many different churches and church groups. During long conversations in those discipleship groups I realized that many people only believe the positive Santa Clause God that sends everyone to heaven no matter what.
Biblical faith helps you understand the difficult and controversial concepts of hell and God’s wrath. Biblical faith is based not on your imagination or your make-believe persona of God but it’s based in the word of God, through which He reveals Himself. And the word of God reveals that some people go to heaven while others go to hell. This is the most difficult aspect of Biblical faith to comprehend and accept.
This topic is the most discussed in the comments on my Christian blog, which I’ll link for you in case you’d like to read my article and participate in the conversation about heaven and hell.
Next we will discuss the thirteenth characteristic of Biblical faith.
13. Biblical Faith in God Makes It Clear That There’s Nothing You Can Ever Do To Save Yourself.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, you must viscerally understand and accept this truth:
Biblical faith makes it clear that there’s nothing you can ever do to save yourself.
You can’t perform for God, bribe Him, give Him a sacrifice of some worldly value.
You simply can’t be good for God.
He sent Jesus to be sacrificed for you.
Jesus is the one and only way to salvation.
Faith in Jesus is the narrow path to heaven. Nothing you can ever do to become your own savior.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
Biblical faith makes it clear that there’s nothing you can ever do to save yourself. Only Jesus can save you from God’s eternal wrath.
Next we will discuss the fourteenth characteristic of Biblical faith.
14. Biblical Faith in God Is The Key to Hope, Peace, and Joy.
Biblical faith is the key to hope, peace, and joy. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit moves into your body and dwells in you, meaning that the Spirit of God lives in you.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, remember that having faith in God’s plan for your life means having God’s perfect peace and the joy of the Lord available to you as a gift, even during hard times, when you don’t understand, when it seems impossible to trust God or have faith in God.
The joy of the Lord and God’s peace that passes all understanding are available to you as a free gift 24/7/365.
The gift is yours for the taking.
Romans 15:13 says:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Biblical faith is the key to hope, peace, and joy. In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God during hard times, remember that the foundation of faith in God is hope in Christ, which is available to you through the Holy Spirit who is in you.
You are inseparable from God’s hope if you gave your life to Christ and Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior.
Next we will discuss the fifteenth and final characteristic of Biblical faith.
15. Biblical Faith in God Helps You Understand Why You Go Through Seasons of Adversity.
In answering the question “What is faith in God?” and pondering how to have faith in God completely, we are comforted in the fact that Biblical faith helps us understand why we go through trials and tribulations.
In 2019, I attended AmericasMart here in Atlanta and was interviewed by two men from a popular Christian paper-products manufacturing company. They wanted to partner with me to print my Biblical affirmations. You can see merch with my Biblical affirmations in the description box below. I’m wearing one of my designs right now. Those men asked about my faith journey. I shared my life story with them very genuinely from an open heart.
After I shared about my walk with Christ through divorces, homelessness, miscarriage, poverty, domestic violence, narcissistic abuse, childhood trauma… I shared very openly about God’s work in me and through me. After hearing about my life, one of the men said with pity: “What a tragic story!”
He didn’t rejoice with me and for me in God’s glory because he was blind and unable to see God’s glory in my life story. That man doesn’t understand how God works. I responded to him by saying: “It’s a story of God’s glory.” The other man at that moment rejoiced, and I saw it on his face and I heard it in his voice. He understood how God works.
God surely blessed me with many trials, and persevering through those led me to this Christian ministry for women, Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com which is now my life, and allows me to encourage and empower Christian women who are seeking God and want to have strong faith even during hard times.
From a place of genuine vulnerability, I can share Christ with you and encourage you so that you don’t feel lonely in your own season of adversity, suffering, and pain.
God equipped me for this.
I found purpose in my pain once I understood how God works.
Understand God, realize that He has a plan and uses all things for good, and you will be able to have Biblical faith in God, even when it seems impossible.
Without the test, I’d have no testimony.
What tests are you going through right now and will later have a testimony and display God’s glory through your powerful story? Let me know n the comments below!
1 Peter 1:7 explains:
“Trials and tribulations have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Biblical faith helps you understand why you go through seasons of adversity.
We examined in great detail the answers to the questions “What Is Biblical Faith?” and “Where Does Faith Come from?”
Now, let’s ponder how to have faith in God.
Here’s my 10-step guide to having a genuine steadfast Biblical faith in God.
How To Have Faith in God Completely
- Realize that you can’t do anything in your own power and you need help.
- Ask Jesus to come into your heart, be your personal Lord and Savior, guide you, and lead you on your journey.
- Spend time with God to have a genuine, intimate relationship with Jesus.
- Pray on your knees in heartfelt surrender to God out of gratitude for what Jesus has done for you personally by sacrificing His life on the cross to give you a life of peace.
- Seek God’s wisdom in all situations and take faithful productive actions consistently, not in your own power but in the power of Christ in you.
- Share your gratitude and the desires of your heart with God through prayer.
- Lean on Him and not your own understanding of life situations.
- Trust God and follow Him by taking faith-based action every day, even when things get really tough.
- Talk to God.
- Pray without ceasing.
This is how to have faith in God.
Now, let me share with you a very personal and intense example of how I struggle with God but continue to take action in faith, even though things are really tough for me in this season of life. Here’s how I trust God even in trials and tribulations, even when it seems impossible to have faith.
Let’s discuss…
Faithfulness In Action
Genuine faith in God is based on hope for things yet unseen. How to know if you have faith in God? Observer your behavior during hard times. I am going through hard times right now and I’ve been struggling with God, which I’m going to share with you right now.
God called me to ministry.
I founded Online Discipleship for Women in 2017. By the end of that year, I started my YouTube channel called Anna Szabo, publishing fir a little bit, but then I quit because I got too scared to minister to women, too insecure, too overwhelmed.
I was trying to do it all in my own power.
In 2021, I started publishing a helpful Christian video every single day on my main YouTube channel called Anna Szabo.
After 70 days of publishing a valuable and helpful video on my channel every single day, there’s no growth, my channel is not monetized, Christian women are not finding my channel, and I feel stagnant.
I’ve been struggling every day: God, why did you call me to do this but you’re not helping me grow? Hello? God? Are you listening to me? Should I make a new video today? Will you make things easier for me? When am I going to grow and reach more Christian women with my ministry? I’m about to quit! Are you there? Hello? God? …
As I’m observing my behavior of struggling and resentment and procrastination, every day I’m wondering: what will Anna do?
Will Anna do what God asked her to do and work relentlessly on her ministry and publish a new video every day despite the lack of growth right now?
In my own power, I can’t make Anna do anything. But as you can see from my main YouTube channel called Anna Szabo, I’m not quitting this time. Why?
I’m not doing this in my own power.
This time, I simply think of myself with sober judgment and understand that Anna is a mere human, she can feel all discouraged and bitter about working without any breaks for 70 days and seeing no results in YouTube growth.
This time, I draw my strength and power from Christ, not from myself. I lean on the Lord, pray, surrender, listen to His voice, and God says I need to continue. So, I counted for 70 days straight and now I’m also launching this new channel fir Christian women. I started a new channel in February and posted a helpful biblical message there every single week in addition to posting a helpful video on my main channel.
I struggle with God, I write Him letters, I talk to Him emotionally during my prayers, I cast all my cares on Him without holding back. I complain to God about my lack of YouTube growth, I tell God that I feel inadequate, a failure, a total loser, and I just can’t do this on my own. I need Jesus.
Right now, and every day.
Romans 12:3 resonates with me:
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
I thought Anna could do YouTube on her own and grow. Well… nope. Thinking of myself with sober judgment, I observe that Anna wanted to quit about 70 times already. I ask God for help every day.
My faith causes me to choose to pray and surrender to God using my free will, and God gives me courage to persevere. God asked me to start 6 new YouTube channels this year, which I did in February.
They have hardly any subscribers but I faithfully publish helpful videos there because I have hope for the things unseen. Without getting paid, without any visible growth, every day, I work hard as unto the Lord, and I publish 14 new videos every week, all by myself, no human help, I do it all through Christ, in faith, because I trust God to work it all out, God will use my videos for His divine purpose, and I know it wholeheartedly so I work without quitting.
Make no mistake: it’s not easy.
God and I wrestle, and my hustle is real.
Day after day, I work without seeing the fruit of my labor, because I have faith.
Let me tell you…
What Faith Means To Me
- I believe in God who has a certain plan for my life and He anointed me to fulfill His plan
- I believe that God’s plan is good
- I believe that God created me in His own image for a purpose and He ordained the circumstances in my life to equip and prepare me to fulfill His divine purpose
- I believe that God defined the purpose for my life and prepared good works in advance for me to do, and I need to do those works because no one else can do the work assignment that is mine to do
- I believe that God designed every part of me, which means I am perfect for what He anointed me to do
- I believe that I am a child of God, the king of the universe, which makes me a Princess.
Knowing, understanding, embracing, abs cherishing who I am in Christ helps me do God’s work every day, by the grace of God that is sufficient fir all my circumstances, even the lack of YouTube growth after 70 days of publishing a helpful video a day.
If you want to understand and embrace who you’re are in Christ so that you can have faith in God during hard times, I have a gift to bless you with right now.
I created a book of 52 devotionals answering the question “Who Am I In Christ?” The book is called “52 things God says about you.” The link to your free gift is in the description box.
Let’s summarize what you have learned today.
What is Faith? One sentence answer is that it’s hope for things unseen.
Also, I’ll summarize this for your in this definition: faith is a…
1. Way of Being
2. State of Mind
3. Beliefs System
4. Vision for the Future
5. Presence of Trust
6. Personal Perspective
7. Philosophy about the World
8. Foundation of Identity
9. Set of Expectations
10. Understanding of the Afterlife
Where does faith come from? Faith in God comes from hearing the word of God about Christ and for hearing the testimonies of believers about the work of Christ in their lives. You heard my testimony today, and I hope you’re encouraged and empowered by it.
What is the outcome of having faith?
The outcome of having faith in God is faithful action.
How can you have more faith?
Practice taking faithful action more often.
Which faithful action will you take today to practice faith in God? Let me know in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching.
God bless!
Anna Szabo is the founder of Online Discipleship For Women, a Christian ministry committed to helping alleviate suicide among women globally by sharing hope in Christ. Anna teaches how to create a joyful life by embracing God’s word based on her six pillars of joyful living: faith, food, fitness, finances, felicity, and fortitude. She is a Christian speaker, YouTuber, artist, poet, and blogger who created 2,000,000 words of Gospel-focused content to encourage and empower you. Donate to show your support.
