I'm preaching for the first time at my youth group soon.

Cameron143 ---this is your Quote ----from above ----and it is Wrong ---no matter how to put it is WRONG
-Period ----

Cameron143 said:
Right...the kindness led to Him using faith to save you.




I agree that when God draws on an unbelieving heart it signifies His unmerited Favor where He takes the initiative to Offer His Graced Gift of salvation to that person ---but this offer of Grace does not Save the person -this offer only makes available to the person their Salvation ----and they can accept or refuse this offer ----

If The person accepts the offer they have to then begin to hear the Word of Faith who is Jesus and Jesus who is the Word inbirths the Producing faith in the person so they can Receive the Salvation gift ------only then are they saved--

Grace alone makes Salvation available ---Faith alone Receives it -----

Faith doesn't receive anything. Faith is simply belief

OH ---Now I know you have no clue what God's Faith really is------your ignorance of how powerful God's faith is is showing big time here ---

You need a lot of coaching on God's Faith ----


Faith is a substance -----that brings our hope into reality ---Faith will move your mountain out of the way ----Faith is a reality ---

Hebrews 11
The Triumphs of Faith
11 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].

2 For by this [kind of] faith the [a]men of old gained [divine] approval.


Hebrews 11

King James Version

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.


Greek word for substance

Strong's Lexicon
hupostasis: Substance, assurance, confidence, essence, reality

a giving substance (or reality) to, or a guaranteeing, (c) substance, reality.

that which has actual existence; a substance, real being:


5287 hypóstasis(– properly, (to possess) standing under a guaranteed agreement ("title-deed"); (figuratively) "title" to a promise or property, i.e. a legitimate claim (because it literally is, "under a legal-standing") – entitling someone to what is guaranteed under the particular agreement.

For the believer, 5287 /hypóstasis ("title of possession") is the Lord's guarantee to fulfill the faith He inbirths (cf. Heb 11:1 with Heb 11:6). Indeed we are only entitled to what God grants faith for (Ro 14:23).


By Faith we receives God's promises and Faith bring then into existence in this Physical world

By we Faith receive our Salvation and we are saved ----

By Faith we receive what we hope for ----when you hope for a thing it is in the future --you do not see it yet ---Faith brings our hope so we see it in this physical world -----

the power of Faith ---

Mark 11:22-24 ESV /
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Faith Creates ----Faith moves mountains -----and Faith brings the unseen into this seen realm ----Faith receives what God has promised in His word and manifests them into our lives ----

Faith is simply belief. God moves mountains.
Jesus told a lady her faith made her whole. But it was God who made her whole because she exercised her faith or belief. In other words, she believed what God said He would do so He did it.

How many mountains have you moved? Zero. Why? God hasn't told you He would move any for you. If He does and you believe Him, He will.

The substance of faith is the promise of God. It means we are sure of something because God has said. Is you believing something God hasn't said faith?

Faith is simply belief. God moves mountains.
Jesus told a lady her faith made her whole. But it was God who made her whole because she exercised her faith or belief. In other words, she believed what God said He would do so He did it.

How many mountains have you moved? Zero. Why? God hasn't told you He would move any for you. If He does and you believe Him, He will.

The substance of faith is the promise of God. It means we are sure of something because God has said. Is you believing something God hasn't said faith?

----your ignorance is showing again -----you should really move Satan out of your way cause he has blinded your mind to the reality of the Power of God's Faith -----

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Enjoy your dead faith----I prefer my producing Faith -----

Praying for you to have your mind unveiled to the truth of what God's Faith really is -----

Oh, I thought it would have happened by now. I just want to say that I think your idea in the OP was good:

"After reading this, I kind of thought that maybe I could say something like, "have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt or thought that, 'if God, you had been with me, this bad thing wouldn't of happened?'. Actually, God is always with us, but He allows bad things for His glory and your good. (Earlier someone else preach on John 9, which was about the blind man being healed of his blindness) Remember the man born blind? Jesus said in verse 3, "neither this man nor his parents sinned," Jesus answered. "This came about so that the works of God might be displayed in him.". So, the reason why bad things happen is not always the result of sin and is ultimately because God allowed it for His own glory. And Romans 8:28 tells us that it's for our own good as well."

I have thoughts related to this that I will share in this regard that should help answer that question.

An issue frequently cited as constituting stumbling-blocks to belief in the NT God for some people is reconciling God’s power and love with the fact of evil and its consequence. A person might think that God would not permit evil, suffering and hell to exist. People who are mystified by evil and repulsed by its punishment do not realize that the essential aspect of being a human rather than a robot or subhuman creature is moral free will (MFW), which is what enables a person to experience love and meaning. This is what makes humans different from animals, whose behavior is governed mainly by instinct. This is what it means to be created in God’s image (GN 1:26-27).

MFW only exists when there is the possibility of choosing between two qualitatively opposite moral options that we call good and evil. Thus, God created theoretical evil or the possibility of rejecting Him as an option that actualizes MFW/free human personality. As such it is necessary and even good (GN 1:31). Of course, it was wrong for Satan (1JN 3:8) and humanity (RM 5:12) to make evil actual by choosing to Sin or reject Faith in God’s Lordship. These options are opposites because of essentially different consequences for choosing them. Choosing good results in blessing, life and heaven; and choosing evil results in wrath or cursing, death and hell (DT 30:19).

This is why hell as well as heaven exists. It is the just consequence for choosing evil rather than God. Even the wrath of God is an expression of His love. Hebrews 12:4-11 offers the clue for harmonizing these two themes. This passage indicates that suffering divine wrath in this life is intended as discipline. Suffering earthly misery should teach people their need for God's salvation to heaven, and wrath resulting from sin should teach people to repent of their hatefulness or faithlessness (PR 3:12, IS 33:14-15 RV 3:19) before they die, after which divine wrath will be experienced justly without the opportunity for repentance.

God could not force people to return His love without abrogating their humanity; love must be evoked. If God were to zap ungodly souls, it would be tantamount to forcing conversions at gunpoint, which would not be free and genuine. If God were to prevent people from behaving hatefully, then He would need to prevent them from thinking evilly, which would make human souls programmed automatons. Therefore, for reasons we may understand only sufficiently rather than completely, God designed reality so that experiencing His presence is less than compelling, so that even Jesus (God the Son) on the cross cried out “My God [the Father], why have you forsaken [taken God the Spirit from] me?” (MT 27:46, PS 51:11) This phenomenon is sometimes called “distanciation”, because we experience God as distant from us and “unknown” (ACTS 17:23), even though He is close or immanent, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (ACTS 17:28).

You are so right here ---and Jesus makes that very plain ---

The person had to be drawn by God ---so what do that means -----how does God draw the willing person to accept that Drawing ---

Jesus said this --John 6:44

AMPC
No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day.


So God knows the heart of the person and who will accept His attraction or Drawing and who is willing to take hold of What Jesus has made available to them -----but first they need the right Faith so they have to go to a Church or get a Bible and read the Scriptures which inbirths the right Faith in the person to Receive what Grace has made available to them -----We were Given free will by God to either accept or refuse His drawing ----Many are drawn daily by God but only a few may choose to accept the Draw

Once the draw is accepted ----Faith has to be inbirthed by hearing the word ------

Here is an example --

If you buy a gift for your best friend and you say to your friend -- -I just wanted to buy you a gift --your kindness and love for your friend is radiating here ----your friend did nothing to deserve the gift -and you take the free gift and set it on a table and say ---I will put your gift here for you ------so say Salvation is the free gift ---your kindness --your unmerited favor -Grace ----has made the gift available to your friend ------

But here is the thing -----If the Friend does not move to pick up the gift and receive it and bring it to himself and open it then the gift remains unclaimed ---as the friend knows the gift is there but he has not receive it or claimed it unto himself yet-----

Grace provides ---Faith receives what Grace provided -----Faith always requires a positive response ----and God's Faith will move the person to receive what is available ----

Greek word for Faith -----

Strong's Lexicon ------Read all there is much here on faith

pistis: Faith, belief, trust, confidence, fidelity

https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers

I say -----Notice here ---the word Yielded ---not all people yield to God's Drawing for His Faith


In Scripture, faith is God's warranty, certifying that the revelation He inbirthed will come to pass (His way).

1. Faith is God's work; faith is never the work of people. We cannot produce faith ourselves, nor can we "drum it up at will." Rather, faith comes as Christ speaks His rhçma-word within (see Ro 10:17, Gk text).

"Faith is always a response to a divine revelation"

"Faith is the divine response, wrought in man, by God"


I say ---Faith requires us to respond to what is revealed and available to us ----


NOTICE :---Very Important to get this ====

Any gift however, once received, becomes the "possession" of the recipient. Faith however is always from God and is purely His work (2 Thes 1:11).

Summary
Belief and faith are not exactly equivalent terms. When Jesus told people, "Your faith has made you well," faith was still His gift (Eph 2:8,9).

Any gift however, once received, becomes the "possession" of the recipient. Faith however is always from God and is purely His work (2 Thes 1:11).

Faith is a power that seizes upon the soul, one who yields himself to it


Note -----------Faith Receives your Graced gift of Salvation unto yourself --you take possession of it ------you have to RECEIVE and take Possession of the Gift for it to be yours -----

God's Grace Provided only ---Faith Receives what God has made available -------