Can you keep your faith strong when life brings disappointment, loss, uncertainty, or unexpected challenges? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Yet, just as the seasons change, our trust in God can sometimes fluctuate with our circumstances. When hardship leaves you discouraged or success tempts you to rely on yourself, God invites you to draw closer to Him and remain grounded in His promises. A faith that survives life’s first frost doesn’t depend on favorable circumstances; it rests on the unchanging character and faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

Highlights

• Understand what Hebrews 11:1 teaches about trusting God when you cannot see what lies ahead.

• Discover why changing circumstances can cause faith to fluctuate and how drawing near to God strengthens your trust in Him.

• Learn the five characteristics of surviving faith: focusing on Jesus, remaining steadfast, holding onto hope, sharing your faith, and praying continually.

• Explore how fixing your eyes on Christ helps you resist distractions and stay grounded in God’s truth.

• Find encouragement in God’s unchanging faithfulness, even during seasons when your own faith feels weak.

• Discover how sharing your faith with others can encourage spiritual growth and strengthen your walk with God.

• Reflect on practical ways to deepen your faith and remain steadfast through every season of life.

Click to Listen to Signs of Life: UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

Join us this Fall for Season One of "Signs of Life," an original podcast from UM News. The journey begins in Atlanta, hearing how a book from an icon of the Civil Rights movement is bringing relationship and understanding to two congregations seeking to bridge divides. Then to Belfast, learning about the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the Methodist connection that was—and is—an essential part of healing and peacemaking. Finally, at the Global Young Peoples Convocation in Dublin, explore the world of translation and interpretation through diversity, language and culture.

UM News Podcast Season One | UMNews.org

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Full Transcript Below:

A Faith That Survives the First Frost 

By Lynette Kittle

Bible Reading:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  - Hebrews 11:1

What kind of faith do we have? Does it hold fast and deepen through the seasons of life? Or, does it change like the weather? Do darker, colder days send a chill over our hearts and send us downward, with our circumstances, disappointments, failures, and losses? Likewise, do great successes and joy cause us to feel like we’re doing pretty well on our own?

What causes us to take our eyes off Jesus? Do we let unexpected life events make our faith waiver, or do we stay steadfast and draw nearer to God?

In times of distress as well as joy, James 4:8 urges, “Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

If we find our faith changing and falling off like leaves after autumn’s first frost, we’ll want to survey our hearts and minds and see what’s leading our belief and trust in God to fluctuate like the blowing wind.

As James 1:6-8 warns, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” 

Faith That Fluctuates

Jesus recognizes how, in some, faith fluctuates, asking in Luke 18:8, “…However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

The world has a way of wearing people’s faith down. Jesus explains how that happens in Matthew 24:12, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”

As Hebrews 3:12 warns believers, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”

Even so, as 2 Timothy 2:13 explains, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.”

5 Characteristics of Surviving Faith

So what kind of faith survives through the first frost and beyond? The following is a description of the five characteristics it takes. 

1. Surviving faith sets its mind on Jesus. Locking our gaze on Jesus keeps our hearts and minds set on Him. As Colossians 3:2 urges, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

As well, Hebrews 12:2 urges, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

1. Surviving faith stays steadfast. It’s our choice when it comes to standing firm and staying steadfast in our faith. Colossians 1:23 describes what we need to do: 

“If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard, and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”

1. Surviving faith holds onto hope. Holding onto hope keeps us from swerving back and forth in our faith. As Hebrews 10:23 urges, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”
2. Surviving faith spreads to others. When our faith survives, it can’t stay contained within us because there is too much life in it to keep silent. Faith that survives finds ways to share with others, even while we’re still growing in it. 

Acts 18:25 tells us of a passionate Jewish teacher in Ephesus named Apollos, who couldn’t keep his faith quiet, even though he was still learning and growing in his relationship with God. “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.”

1. Surviving faith prays continually. A faith that keeps praying, takes us through the seasons of life, as Paul urges in Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Intersecting Faith & Life:

Does your faith waiver at times? If so, commit to building a surviving faith that weathers the first frost and much more. 

Further Reading:

A Prayer to Deepen and Strengthen Your Faith