Scripture teaches us that faith is essential in the life of a believer. The Bible tells us, “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Grace makes salvation available, but faith is what reaches out and takes hold of it. Without faith, there is no salvation. Without faith, we don’t live in the grace God has already given.

God doesn’t just call us to start with faith; He calls us to walk by faith. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Scripture goes even further and tells us, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). All throughout scripture God is inviting us to live by faith. That we would by faith not just grab hold of salvation, but we would continue by faith to reach out and grab hold of everything else that God has for our lives.

Over and over in Scripture, we see how much faith matters. In Mark 2, when the paralyzed man is lowered through the roof, Scripture says, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you’” (Mark 2:5). Jesus didn’t just see the need; He saw the faith. And that faith led to both spiritual and physical healing.

In Matthew 8, Jesus encounters a Roman centurion and “marveled” at his faith (Matthew 8:10). I imagine that it might be a bit hard to impress Jesus, but faith got His attention. Jesus tells him, “As you have believed, so let it be done for you” (Matthew 8:13). In other words, the level of his faith set the level of his experience.

Later, Jesus returns to His hometown, and Scripture tells us something sobering: “Now He could do no mighty work there… because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:5–6). It wasn’t that Jesus lacked the power; it was that His hometown lacked the faith.

Scripture is not saying that faith forces the hand of God to work; rather, it trusts the God who is already at work. Faith doesn’t force God to do good; it holds the hand of God who is good.  This isn’t about getting God to catch up with us and our faith. It’s about getting us, and our faith, to catch up with God.