Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that, "by grace you have been saved through faith." Not only is it grace alone, but it's also faith alone, or Sola Fide, as the reformers put it. But what does it mean to be saved by faith? What exactly is faith?

A lot of people equate faith with belief. But faith is more than just believing. It's not enough to just believe that Jesus exists. We have to put our active trust in him. Hebrews 11:1 says that, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." When we have the assurance and conviction that Jesus is the Son of God who gave his life for us, it causes us to live our life in such a way that we are actively trusting in Jesus. Faith is not just a noun... not just something we have, but it's a verb. Faith is an action.

At the moment of salvation, you surrender your life to Jesus. You give him everything and entrust him fully with your future. When we truly place our faith in Christ, we continue following after him day by day. Our lives are transformed and we begin to produce good fruit.

If faith is an action, it would be easy then to think that I have to do something or "perform well" to be saved, but that's also not the case. While it's true that Jesus wants us to live out our faith, our salvation is based on faith alone in Jesus and nothing else. We can't add to the work that Jesus has done, we simply trust in him and that work he already accomplished. Jesus invites us to have faith in him by trusting him with every moment of every day.

Here are some questions you can talk about as a family:

What are some of the ways that you have been actively trusting Jesus lately?

Where is Jesus stretching your faith?

Are there any areas of your life where you are trying to take control rather than trusting in Jesus more?