Fully Persuaded
Abraham is considered the father of faith. Romans 4 tells us why.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Romans 4:20-22 (KJV), emphasis mine
Abraham was full persuaded. In other words, he had faith. Having faith can be defined as being fully persuaded. When a person is fully persuaded of something, he cannot be convinced that it is any other way than the way he believes it is. No evidence to the contrary will budge him from his belief. That is how Abraham was. He refused to look at circumstances that said he and Sarah would never have a child. He simply was too convinced that God was faithful to be told otherwise.
The million dollar question is, how do we become fully persuaded of something?
Well, have you ever known someone who told a lie and told that same lie over and over until they actually believed it themselves? Through repeatedly hearing the same thing, they came to accept it as being true, even though they had personally made it up. Faith works the same way, but instead of hearing a lie, faith is developed by hearing truth over and over. After consistent, routine exposure to the truth of God’s Word, we become fully persuaded of what it says. We don’t have to try to get faith- it just comes by hearing the Word of God day after day.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 (KJV)
And when we are persuaded of something, we talk about it. It’s the natural response to believing something. If we believe something, we agree with it by the words we speak to ourselves and others. This is true of faith. When we have become so persuaded about the Word of God, we will automatically begin to tell people about it. That is what a faith confession is all about. That’s exactly what happens when someone is born-again. They become fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and they speak with their mouth that He died and rose again.
It almost sounds too simple to be true, but faith, or being fully persuaded, comes by consistent, daily exposure to the spoken Word of God. This leads to us speaking out what we believe, or confessing it, which is an act of faith that demonstrates our belief. And once we have been fully persuaded- truly convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that something is 100 percent totally true, and we support it with our words, we will see the manifestation of what we believe. And that’s how faith works.
