During times in our lives when we suffered setbacks and trials, we can remember the feelings of being discouraged and disheartened. Facing difficulties and having faith that we can move through them is something the world expects of us, but the world has a backward idea of faith and how to apply it. Religion has taught us to depend on ourselves to get out of a situation, which sounds good on the surface. However, success in this area requires that we learn to depend on God to help us.

We’ve probably heard the phrase “Keep the faith,” which is defined as continuing to believe in and trust someone or something when it’s difficult to do so. The problem here is that it focuses on our own faith, which isn’t enough to get us moving forward again on the right path. We need something stronger and much more reliable than anything that comes from us: the faith of Christ Himself. “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe…” (Romans 3:22). We’re all flawed human beings with imperfect faith that’s up one day and down the next; our only hope is to have faith in Jesus’ faith.

Faith in Jesus is different than the faith of Jesus. Days when we feel strong enough to have faith in Him can be followed by days when we struggle with believing anything. Consistently maintaining our own faith doesn’t take into account our human weaknesses. Trusting instead in Jesus’ unwavering, perfect faith gives us something solid, because faithfulness is His nature. “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is” (2 Timothy 2:13, NLT).

Sometimes we know intellectually that moving forward will help us climb out of the pit we fell into, but we don’t know the practical steps of how to do that. On our own, we can’t; the good news is that relying on the faith of Jesus spares us from having to rely on our own faith that can sometimes be misdirected. Paul, who had faith in the Law of Moses until he met Jesus, was an example of this. “Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14, NLT).

Trusting in what we do to improve our situation only results in empty works. We can’t depend on our own achievements, experience, or cleverness to move forward. What God wants is for us to believe in Jesus and His finished works to keep us on the right path in life. “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:28, 29). This kind of faith takes the pressure off of us to perform and focuses instead on Jesus and what He did.

Our Christian walk is successful only when we go by faith, not by our momentary feelings or what’s going on around us. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Our emotions are undependable and can deceive us, but we’ll never go wrong trusting in Jesus and in His faithfulness to us. When trouble hits, properly employing faith keeps us from getting stuck in the situation.