Why Faith Is Caught as Much as It Is Taught
Faith Is Built on a History of God’s Faithfulness
Hebrews 11 — the great chapter of faith — is essentially a list of people who trusted God based on evidence of who He had already shown Himself to be. Faith in Scripture is not a leap into the unknown — it is a step forward based on what God has already demonstrated. One of the most powerful things a family can do is build a shared memory of God’s faithfulness: the prayers answered, the provision that came through, the moments where God showed up in ways that cannot easily be explained away. Children who grow up with those stories — especially the family’s own stories, not just biblical ones — have something real to stand on when their faith is tested.
Faith Without Action Is Not Faith — It Is Opinion
James is unambiguous: faith that does not produce action is dead. What a person truly believes will always show up in how they live. Helping children understand that faith is not a private internal conviction but something that shapes decisions, priorities, and behaviour is helping them understand the full picture. A child who says they trust God but never prays, never steps out, never gives, and never follows where they feel led is holding an opinion, not living a faith. The goal is a faith that moves — that shows up in choices, in generosity, in courage, in the willingness to do what God says even when it is uncomfortable.
Doubt Is Not the Opposite of Faith — Fear Is
One of the most damaging things a family can accidentally communicate is that doubt is dangerous and must be suppressed. Scripture is full of people who doubted — Thomas, John the Baptist in prison, the disciples in the storm — and God met every one of them in their doubt without condemnation. Doubt honestly expressed and brought to God is part of a living faith. Fear that keeps a child from asking hard questions, from wrestling with what they believe and why, produces a fragile faith that cannot survive contact with the real world. Create space for the questions. Doubt brought to God deepens faith. Doubt suppressed quietly destroys it.
Meet Elijah — the Boy Who Kept the Jar
Elijah was eight when his family started the jar. It was his dad’s idea — a plain glass jar on the kitchen shelf, and every time God answered a prayer or did something they could not explain away, they wrote it on a piece of paper and put it in. His mum’s job came through the week after they prayed about it. His little sister’s fever broke the night they prayed by her bed. His grandmother found a place to live three days before she needed to move. Each slip of paper went in the jar.
When Elijah was eleven, his dad lost his job and the family went through the hardest six months they had ever known. Elijah was frightened — genuinely, quietly frightened in a way he had not felt before. One evening he sat in the kitchen alone and looked at the jar. It was almost full by then. He tipped it out and read through the papers one by one, all the way back to the beginning.
He did not stop being scared that night. But something shifted. He put the papers back carefully and sat with the jar in his hands and thought: God has shown up every single time before. He thought about that for a long time. Then he prayed — not a polished prayer, just an honest one: “I am scared and I need You to show up again.” His dad found a new job two months later. The paper went in the jar.
Did You Know?
Hebrews 11 lists more than a dozen people who lived by faith — and almost all of them trusted God for things they never personally saw fulfilled in their lifetime. Abraham died before the nation God promised him fully existed. Moses never entered the Promised Land. Yet Scripture calls them people of great faith. Biblical faith is not about getting the outcome you prayed for in the timeframe you hoped for — it is about continuing to trust the character of God regardless of what you can currently see.
Power Move 1: Build the Evidence File
Faith grows when it has something to stand on. Your first power move is keeping track of God’s faithfulness — a journal, a jar, a note on your phone — where you record the moments God showed up, answered prayer, or provided in ways you did not expect. When the hard seasons come and faith feels thin, the evidence file is what you return to. You are not trusting blindly — you are trusting the God who has already proven Himself faithful more times than you can count.
Power Move 2: Take One Step You Cannot See the End Of
Faith is not theoretical — it is the step you take when you cannot see what is ahead. Your second power move is identifying something you feel God is asking you to do or trust Him for, and taking one concrete step toward it even though the outcome is not guaranteed. Every person in Hebrews 11 took steps like that. The step does not have to be large. It just has to be real — a genuine act of trust rather than a comfortable, low-risk decision you would have made anyway.
Power Move 3: Bring Your Doubt to God, Not Away From Him
Doubt is not the enemy of faith — it is an invitation to go deeper. Your third power move is learning to bring your hard questions and your genuine doubts directly to God rather than suppressing them or letting them drift into unbelief. Tell God what you are struggling to believe. Ask Him to help your unbelief — that is a prayer He has answered before (Mark 9:24). The person who wrestles honestly with God comes out of it with a faith that is genuinely their own — tested, personal, and far stronger than one that was never questioned.
Your Challenge This Week
- Start your own evidence file this week — a jar, a journal page, a note on your phone. Write down every time you can remember God showing up in your life. Start there and keep adding.
- Identify one thing you feel God is asking you to trust Him for right now. Take one step toward it this week — even a small one — as an act of faith.
- Read Hebrews 11:1 every day this week. Ask God to grow in you the confidence and assurance it describes — not as a feeling, but as a settled trust in who He is.
Activities:
You'll Need
- A glass jar and slips of paper to start or add to a family “God showed up” record — spend time together remembering and writing down moments of God’s faithfulness in your family’s history. Read them aloud. Let the children ask questions about each one.
- A Bible or Bible app to read Hebrews 11 together — take turns reading different people’s stories. After each one ask: “What did this person trust God for? How long did they wait? What did their faith cost them?”
- A family “step of faith” conversation — is there something your family has been sensing God calling you toward that you have been cautious about? Name it. Pray about it together. Decide on one step.
- An honest doubt discussion — create space for every family member to share one thing about faith they find hard to believe or a question they have not felt safe asking. Listen without defending. Pray together over what is shared.
Discussion Starters
- What is the clearest example of God’s faithfulness in our family’s history — the moment that, when you look back, you can say with certainty: God showed up there?
- James says faith without action is dead. Where does our family’s faith show up in our actual choices, priorities, and behaviour — and where is there a gap between what we say we believe and how we live?
- Is there a question about God or faith that someone in our family has been afraid to ask? Is now the time to ask it out loud and wrestle with it together?
- If our family were listed in a modern Hebrews 11, what would it say we trusted God for — and what step of faith does our chapter still need to include?
Reflection Questions
- Faith is confidence in what we hope for — not certainty about every detail. Where is God asking your family to be confident in Him right now, even without certainty about the outcome?
- Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing the word of God. How regularly is your family in Scripture — and is that regular enough to be building the faith you want your children to carry into adulthood?
- Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God. That is a serious statement. What does it look like for your family to live in a way that is genuinely pleasing to God — full of trust, not just compliance?
- What would your family’s faith look like if it were ten percent braver — if you trusted God with one thing you have been holding back? What is that thing?
Family Prayer
Dear God, thank You for being a God who rewards those who earnestly seek You — who shows up for the ones who trust You, even when trust is hard and the way ahead is not clear. We want to be a family of genuine faith — not just the kind that sounds right on Sundays but the kind that shows up in our choices, our prayers, our generosity, and our willingness to step forward when we cannot see the end. Help us to build our faith on the record of Your faithfulness. Help us to bring our doubts to You rather than away from You. And give us the courage to take the steps of faith You are calling us to — even the ones that frighten us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
What Scripture Teaches About Faith
Scripture gives us some of its most powerful and most practical teaching on faith. These verses are not just theological statements — they are descriptions of what a faith-filled life actually looks like in practice.
- Hebrews 11:1:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” - Romans 10:17:
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” - James 2:17:
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” - Hebrews 11:6:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
