Faith is not just believing God can do something. Faith is not just hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance.

Jesus said, “When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).

When you thank God after you’ve got it, that’s gratitude. When you thank him in advance, that’s faith.

Gratitude is good and right. But your goal should be to become a person of deeper faith. To do that, you have to thank God in advance.

If I handed you a check right now for one hundred dollars, would you wait until you cashed it to thank me? No! You’d thank me right now. But the money wouldn’t be yours until you actually cashed it, because that check is really a promise. When I gave you that check, you’d say, “Thank you, Rick.” You’d believe that I was credible and that I had enough money in the bank to cover a check for one hundred dollars.

In the same way, faith is thanking God in advance. It’s believing that what God has promised, he will provide. It’s saying you love God for who he is and not just what he can do for you. It’s showing you trust him to do what he’s said he will do.

One day two blind men followed Jesus to the home where he was staying. They shouted at him to have mercy on them, and Jesus asked them if they had faith that he could heal them. They answered that they believed, and Jesus said, “Because of your faith, it will happen” (Matthew 9:29 NLT).

What I’m saying is this: If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, take the tartar sauce with you. You’re going to have a fish fry tonight!