2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

If you find it difficult to trust others, perhaps the issue stems from not trusting yourself. We had a life before Christ and for many of us that life was full of failures. We broke trust, we acted selfishly, and we acted in ways that were contrary to our new nature. We know what we were and we do not get over it simply by saying “I am changed.” First change must happen.

We have to prove to ourselves that we are changed in walking by faith. Much of what we do in walking by faith leaves a new recent history. As we look back in examination of action, motivation, and results; do not look too far into the past. It is our recent past that proves us, not our distant past.

Yes we stumble, we are not yet perfect. Failing in walking by faith is a learning opportunity.  We should not speak to our inner man with negative speech. Those words are lies and do not encourage the new creation you are in Christ. This old man was weak, stupid, beggarly, selfish, arrogant, and willful. Such self-talk does not befit the victorious warrior we are today. Confidence comes from Christ who abides in us.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The worst kind of condemnation is self-condemnation because you fail to trust yourself in Christ.

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Finish this sentence; How can God . . . . ?

I was relating to my accountability partner some of the things that I see as issues of faith. People for some reason or another tend to try to put God in a box so that they can peek in and see He is real. I have witnessed this behavior in men of faith that have walked with God for decades.

Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Their assertion is that they have faith, therefor they should be able to do anything. They try and fail. Since they believed the scriptures and nothing happened, then God has limits. Well that is false thinking. Their first failure was in understanding faith. If you fail to understand the principles of faith, everything that follows fails.

Faith will not violate the will of God. Faith comes from God and is subject to God just as we are subject to God. We live by faith in Christ, the perfect servant, who did nothing against the will of the Father. Is it so hard to understand that many of those “things” we try to do “by faith” are not the will of God.

We live by faith. God lives by will. God will not violate His character, His identity, nor His will in favor of our will.

On the humanistic side of our understanding, I have witnessed that we often fuss over understanding the most trivial matters. Doing that wastes time that could be better spent on important matters, like sharing the gospel.