Rom. 10:10: “With the heart one exercises faith.” (By meditating on godly things to build up appreciation for them, a person impresses them on his figurative heart.)

Faith is strengthened when a person acts on God’s promises and then sees the evidence of God’s blessing on what he has done.—See Psalm 106:9-12.

Illustration: Perhaps you have a friend of whom you would say: ‘I trust that man. I can count on him to keep his word; and I know that if I have a problem, he will come to my help.’ It is not likely that you would be saying that about anyone you met for the first time yesterday, is it? He would have to be someone with whom you had long association, someone who had proved his dependability time and again. It is similar with religious faith. To have faith, you need to take time to get to know Jehovah and his way of doing things.

Faith that there is a God

See pages 145-151, under the main heading “God.”

Faith in the prospect of a righteous new system of things

When a person becomes well acquainted with the record of Jehovah’s dealings with his servants, he comes to share the viewpoint of Joshua, who said: “You well know with all your hearts and with all your souls that not one word out of all the good words that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed.”—Josh. 23:14.

The Bible’s promises of renewed health, resurrection from the dead, and so forth, are fortified by the record of miracles performed by Jesus Christ. These are not fables. Read the Gospel accounts and see the evidence that they bear all the marks of historical authenticity. Geographical locations are named; the names of contemporary secular rulers are given; more than one eyewitness account has been preserved. Meditating on this evidence can strengthen your faith in the Bible’s promises.

Go to the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to their general conventions, and you can then see for yourself evidence that application of Bible counsel transforms lives, that it can make people honest and morally upright, that it can enable people of all races and nationalities to live and work together in a spirit of genuine brotherhood.

Are works really necessary if a person has faith?

Jas. 2:17, 18, 21, 22, 26: “Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself. Nevertheless, a certain one will say: ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith apart from the works, and I shall show you my faith by my works.’ Was not Abraham our father declared righteous by works after he had offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? You behold that his faith worked along with his works and by his works his faith was perfected. Indeed, as the body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”

Illustration: A young man may court a young lady, telling her that he loves her. But if he never asks her to marry him, is he really demonstrating that his love is thorough? Likewise, works are a means of demonstrating the genuineness of our faith and our love. If we do not obey God we do not really love him or have faith in the rightness of his ways. (1 John 5:3, 4) But we cannot earn salvation no matter what works we do. Eternal life is a gift from God through Jesus Christ, not payment for our works.—Eph. 2:8, 9.

How can true prophets and false ones be identified?

True prophets make known their faith in Jesus, but more is required than claiming to preach in his name

1 John 4:1-3: “Test the inspired expressions to see whether