What is Faith?

 

In the New Testament we read many verses about Christian faith:

“For by grace  are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. (Hebrews 11:1).

 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”. (Hebrews 11:6). 

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith”.(1 John 5:4).

 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans 5:1). “For we walk by faith, not by sight”.(2 Corinthians 5:7).

So Faith is the only thing through which we are saved, with it we can move mountains, without it we may not see God’s Kingdom. It is a good thing. Necessary thing. Faith can be great and growing or vain, failing or even dead. But what is it, Faith?

In the basis of it there is a communication between some information and a soul. This information our soul receives from some source - a person or a book / audio / video so on. The source of information should have an authority. We read in the Scriptures: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” “and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:17, 14b). 

Emotions in the soul are very important. When we hear something, we are likely to believe if it is something admirable for us and we like it; if we have hope for that or fear. Hopes and fears are stronger stimulators for faith than simple desire to have something. Joy, excitement and desires are very important but have short term influence. We all know the parable of the sower. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and with joy receives it; Yet has he not root in himself, but dures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. (Matthew 13:20, 21).

Hope is a much stronger motivator for our faith than a simple admiration. Remember a woman who had an issue of blood twelve years, she had a strong hope that Jesus would heal her because she refused to be sick all her life. Or a woman of Canaan her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil and she was brave talking with Jesus even when He said about the dogs, she believed till the end. That’s why her faith Jesus called great.

Fear. “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”. (Jude 23). Fears and hopes have the same structure but opposite colours. Fear is waiting for something bad to happen.

So

 Information+Emotions=a seed of faith appears, it needs to be placed into your heart and flourished and kept from opposite thoughts. If you once believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior and this faith grew  in your heart, after no one can take it away. But in God’s Kingdom salvation is only the beginning of the path. Daily you need to hear Word and mix it with your faith.

In my blog I have written about the power of Jabez’s prayer, travailing in prayer, abiding in Christ. You have read the information, felt some emotions, faith appeared in your heart, but did it grow? Will it bear fruits? Even if it grew, we know that “as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”. (James 2:26). 

Let’s for a moment look at another Faith we have. Ungodly faith. Faith which is based not on the Word of God, but also impacts greatly your life. 

1) We all believe in things we were taught at school; 

2) We inherit our parents’ beliefs; 

3) We believe in what the advertisement says; 

4) We believe in almost everything our own soul says. 

Very often ungodly faith is opposite to the Word. For example, we honestly believe in our salvation in Christ, but don’t tell the Gospel to people because we believe that it is not a good time, or they would not be listening, or colleges at your work will think you are strange etc. We have fear that we will be rejected, neglected, they will not understand us or even laugh at us, or even worse, we may be persecuted. 

So what? It looks like our faith in the Gospel worked in our life but after it is dead, without works.

We believe in the Holy Spirit but we are not filled with It and we don’t expect that our life will be changed by the Spirit. We believe that God is able to heal us but we take medicine. There are many such examples. 

Tell me please, what do you think about Faith? How does it grow in your heart? What ungodly faith do you have?