Whatever comes in when you go to God for acceptance, besides Christ, call it anti-Christ; bid it begone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant. All besides that is Babylon, which must fall if Christ stand, and you shall rejoice in the day of the fall thereof (Isa 14:4). Christ alone did tread the winepress, and there was none with Him (Isa 63:3). If you join anything to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain His raiment with the blood of it. You think it easy to believe. Was ever your faith tried with an hour of temptation, and a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience, when you were in the mouth of hell and the grave? Then did God show you Christ a ransom and a righteousness; then you could say, “Oh! I see grace enough in Christ.” You may say that which is the greatest word in the world, believe. Untried faith is uncertain faith. Thomas Willcox
The modern world and it appears as if virtually all involved in evangelism seem to think that it is easy to believe. People are told that all they have to do is exercise their free-will and believe that some facts (they are told) are true and they will be saved. Believers are told pretty much the same thing. Both positions, though it may not be in accord with the person’s creedal position, are far apart from the truth of Scripture that faith is a gift of God that comes on the basis of grace alone. In fact, apart from grace belief (faith) is impossible. A true faith is not something that can come from the flesh, but as a spiritual act or belief it must come from the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God must work it in heart of man and so it is a free gift of grace.
The idea that a person must believe of his or her own power is a terrible teaching of self-help and humanism, not to mention terrible theology. Faith is the instrument of God in uniting people to Christ, which is to say no one can be united to Christ simply because s/he decides to do so and then does it. God is sovereign, not the will of man. As Willcox points out, true faith will stand (though may appear to falter at times) through the times of temptation and thorough sights of sin. This is pointing out how hard it is to truly believe at all times and that true faith will be tested and tried by God. Jesus told us in the Parable of the Sower that the seed would land on different kinds of soil. It was the seed that landed in good soil and bore fruit that was the good seed. The other kinds of soil did not bear true and lasting fruit, though indeed it certainly appeared to do so at first.
The person that thinks it is easy to believe has yet to be severely tried in a time of temptation or perhaps a thorough sight of sin. When all the easy things about belief disappear and the flesh is stretched with desire or perhaps a sight of how sinful it really is, then faith in Christ is truly tested. When the soul is so sensible of its sin and of the wrath of God upon it, there is no easy faith at that time. When the soul sees the depths of its own sin and of how much it hurts to have the hand of God on the conscience, it feels like it is in hell and the worm is not dying at all. When the soul has lost all hope in the flesh and its own strength and even all hope in itself to believe, then and only then is the soul going to look to Christ alone and grace alone. It is one thing to believe the facts about Christ when one is at ease with self and the world, but it is quite another to believe when in the midst of a fiery trial. It is one thing to pray a prayer when someone is pressing you, but it is quite another to really believe when one has the devil pressing upon them with his deceptions and fiery darts of doubt.
The real issue is not always if a person believes the facts as such, but does the person after going through a searching trial and a work of humiliation in the soul look to Christ and His righteousness alone. Does the soul after having the weight of its sin put upon it and then tried by the devil and the hand of God look to the cross of Christ alone as the full satisfaction for all of its sins? Does the soul look to Christ alone for a full and complete righteousness and not try to add to it one bit? Does the soul understand at that point in more than just a theoretical level that all of its salvation and life from beginning to end is nothing but grace and grace alone? The soul that truly believes has Christ Himself and all of His spiritual blessings and this soul will persevere in trials and temptations. But the soul that believes because it was presented with some information and it believed from its own flesh, that soul will fall away. That is the kind of soul that does not look to grace and Christ in order to believe, but instead looks to itself to believe. The only true faith is that which is worked in the soul by Christ and is done so by grace. The soul that truly believes, though indeed as a mustard seed, has Christ Himself as his or her life. The untried faith and the faith of the easy life will always be weak at best.
God Loves... Himself 
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