Have you ever wondered if your faith in Jesus is legitimate? Oh sure, if you attempt to raise your child in a God-fearing home, you probably exhibit a healthy fear of God that your children pick up on.

It is one thing to show your children a God-honoring approach to the Almighty, but it is something else entirely to live this belief out in your private life when no one is around to judge you.

In these cases, it is often all too easy to let our faith slide and commit sin through unbelief and trying to handle our situations using our own efforts.

But God never wanted to handle all our problems on our own. He is our loving, caring Father, and wants to help us through the difficult situations of life. 

In fact, I would even go so far as to see He feels honored when we reach out for help, as this shows a level of trust and reliance that He deeply desires from His children.

However, we can just as easily stray from God when we try to figure out and handle all our problems on our own. We may think we have all the answers, especially if our current situation is similar to one we’ve encountered before.

In these situations, it’s easy for us to rely on our past experiences and successes to handle this problem by ourselves. 

After all, we may think we don’t need God, while waiting around for Him to come through when we can easily take care of our situation ourselves. 

The first way we can tell we’re not living by faith is making the mistake of trying to figure out and solve our problems by leaving God out of them. 

If we truly love Jesus and all that He’s done for us, it should be easy to turn immediately to Him when problems arise and place their outcome in His hands. 

Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for our good to those whose love God and are called according to His purpose. 

If we’ve accepted Christ into our lives, we can rest assured that His leading and guiding are directing our lives into a favorable direction. Somehow, someway, everything will work out to our advantage.

The second action that should signal to us that our faith is legitimate is when we remember to continually love Jesus when things don’t happen the way we want them to. 

That may sound simple, especially when things are going well, but it becomes much more difficult when we’re facing the trials and tribulations of life. 

If you got recently passed over for that big promotion you’ve been looking forward to, it may be hard to maintain a happy attitude toward your boss and especially the individual who was promoted in your place. 

In fact, it may be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done to put on a happy face and offer them congratulations. 

God calls us to celebrate the good fortune of those around us, so we should try our best to feel happy for them and smile at their positive situation. 

Doing so shows that you’re displaying the love of Jesus. It means you’re a bigger man (or woman) and can celebrate their achievements no matter what they are. 

After all, you’re not in competition with anyone except yourself. If you can improve yourself by a mere 1% every day, pretty soon you’ll begin to notice some significant improvements in your life.

The third sign that we know our faith is legitimate ties in closely with the second sign and involves loving God’s people just as He loves us.

For certain, we commit many sins every day, yet our Heavenly Father is just to forgive us of all them. 

In the same way, we are commanded to love others and forgive them just as they sin against us. 

In fact Jesus tells us to forgive our neighbor a whopping 490 times, in essence saying there should be no limit on our forgiveness.

That can be a monumental task that the Lord is asking of us, especially when the trespasser shows no remorse for his actions.

However, if we’re to live in the peace, love, and forgiveness that Jesus did while on earth, we must take his teachings to heart.

Love for others also means going out of our way to serve others and anticipate their needs. Others may never ask us to do something for them out of embarrassment. 

It is up to us to see their needs and lend a helping hand when it is in our power to do so. We should always love, help, and serve people just as God does the same for us.

These three areas are but a few of the ways that we can demonstrate our love and care for God and His creation.

Since we are part of His creation, we should always be on the lookout for how we can better someone’s else’s life.

I’ll be the first to admit that I often fall short in doing this. Too often, I’m in a rush trying to get things done that I overlook the needs of those around me.

It could be something as small as letting someone cut in line at the grocery stop, or helping someone who is obviously stranded on the side of the road.

I try to justify my actions (or lack thereof) by telling myself that I would be late if I stopped to help that person. However, I might be the only person who stops to offer assistance while that persona waits in vain for help.

I need to do a better job of listening to the Holy Spirit as He speaks to me in these situations.

How about you?