Faith is trusting God—believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus it leads us to choose His way instead of our own. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life’s success. Faith puts us in possession of these principles. TEd 157.1
Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God. Faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency. TEd 157.2
Make very plain how to exercise faith. To every promise of God there are conditions. If we are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. Whatever gift He promises is in the promise itself. “The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11. As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we receive the promise, we have the gift. TEd 157.3
Faith that enables us to receive God’s gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as it is exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it into contact with the Word. TEd 157.4
In the study of the Bible the student should be led to see the power of God’s word. In the creation, “He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” He “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Psalm 33:9; Romans 4:17), for when He calls them, they are. TEd 157.5