All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
WHAT IS FAITH?
I posted this question on one of Amanda's Topics and decided to post it for all. The question is out there. What is faith? Do we know and understand.....really understand what the word means? Do we have it? Do we use it?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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Disbelief begins at birth because of the fall in the garden and has nothing to do with attitude. People without Christ are blind, spiritually dead and without faith in Him. They must be brought to life, and this is not something they do, but Christ does
LT , Your statement here made my heart jump. This is somethimg I need to work on.I am always wondering whyI am the way I am why I cant believe like I should. I must be trying to believe on my own without Christ. Man you rock... I am so glad they chose you to be the Net Coodinator. I am slow at learning but you help tremendously.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Janie,
Thank you for the kind response. You made my day :-)
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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"And it is impossible to please God without faith.
Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists
and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him"
(Hebrews 11:6).Great question, Rita.
What God's written Word tells us much about faith. Faith is mentioned 769 times in the Holy Bible. Faith incorporates belief, yet it embodies something far deeper and more profound. Faith is not only believing in God and in the truth of God's revealed Word, but also surrending to him, serving him, and placing our trust and confidence in him. It means being certain in the things we believe and being steadfast or faithful.
Here are some of the scriptural passages that address faith, which I would like to share.
We live by faith.
"We live by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).
What faith is.
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen" (Hebrews 11:1).
"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has" (Romans 8:24)?
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).
There is only one faith.
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5).
Faith comes by hearing the Gospel.
"Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17).
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned" (Romans 12:3).
Faith justifies us before God.
We are justified by faith (Romans 3:28; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1).
Faith saves us (through grace).
Through faith, by grace, a free gift of God, you and I were saved (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 2:16).
Faith is shown by our works.
"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17).
"But someone may well say, 'You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works'" (James 2:18)
"By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles" (Matthew 7:16)?
Being faithful.
God is always faithful to us, but we aren't always faithful to him. Hebrews 10:23 tells us, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."
Without faith we cannot please God.
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).We have no excuse.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:20).
Without faith we are condemned.
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16).
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36).
Faith leads to victory.
"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith" (1 John 5:4).
Jesus said, "All things are possible for one who believes" (Mark 9:23).
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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Colby,
Faith is something we should all have and we should put legs to it but few people do. That was actually my reasoning behind posting this question.
Most people say they have faith but they have no works.
You are correct in counting the number of times we are told about faith in the Word of God. Yet we continually experience people showing their lack of faith.
I actually strengthened my faith by studying the different verses where the word appears.
Thanks for you post.
Blessings...
Rita
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Char,
We are all still growing so what you say (yet all of us can lack faith at times) is very true. We are all subject to doubt, at times, because we are living in an imperfect world. Did she make it to her meeting?
One thing we all do is not trust our faith. (Oxymoron) We're all human. We all doubt. We all doubt that God will do for us. I prayed for my husband to over come his cancer, believing that God would heal him, but I had doubts, even as I prayed. I was scared, I guess, and I gave Satan a foothold to confuse my faith. I do good right up until it involves one of my immediate family....then I falter. That makes me doubt my faith. In other areas, I stay strong when it comes to faith.
I do believe we have to understand faith from the very roots of it. I stick by the definition of what the writer of Hebrews 11:1 gives us. I break it down and scrutinize it to understand it from it's very basics. The meaning of faith is huge, yet when it comes to God, it is very simple. But as I said before, we all have difficulties with it. We all waver because we do live in this imperfect world. We have the tendency to have doubts, at times. We all suffer from a little bit of unbelief. By it's very definition stated in Hebrews 11:1, we can understand why we do doubt, at times.
Blessings to you.....
Rita
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Faith is believing in a God who is able to handle any situation.
What's impossible with man is possible with God
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Permalink Reply by JB on
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The only answer I have seen in this discussion so far, “though I probably haven’t read all of them completely” that comes close to answering the question; “what is faith” Is the one referring to Heb.11:1; whereas faith is the “substance”. True faith is a conviction or a persuasion of one’s heart, and it is also reflected in their lives; the way they respond to circumstances and or situations, trials, temptations etc. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But how many will act on that Word as if it were true?
Isn’t it strange though how we as Christians will go to a doctor with an infirmity of some sort, and after he has diagnosed the problem, will write out a prescription to be filled at the pharmacist, we take it home and start faithfully doing as the doctor prescribed, hoping or even more, trusting that it will cure the infirmity. But we are reluctant to act on the Word of God with the same confidence we have in the doctor’s word. The reason, I believe is, we can see it, feel it sensually. We can know it is working, because we are feeling or seeing the effects of it. This is how doctors get their reputation, by their success rate of accurately diagnosing a problem. The same way some Christians will try to build their faith in God, or the Word, by seeing someone get healed or delivered through prayer or laying on of hands. And not based on the Word of God itself.
I was discussing this same problem with another friend that went to a church that believes a little differently than I, I told him if there were two people laying out here on the ground dead, and I prayed and raised one up, would he believe that I could raise the other one as well? And he said yes, and then I said your faith or confidence was based on what you saw, and not on God’s Word. Faith does not come by sensual perception, but by hearing God’s Word. So whether or not we perceive things sensually or not; God’s Word stands true.
Abraham was “fully persuaded” (no doubting), that what God had “promised” He was also able to perform it. I don’t think for a minute that anyone would think that God wasn’t able to perform any promises He made to Abraham. Our problem is that we just don’t know if He will make that promise good on our behalf, because we do not know if it is God’s will for us or not; therefore we shipwreck our faith, by wavering, spoken of in James 1,”with a wavering faith, let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord”. Gal.3:16 says “now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” So if you have Christ in your life, then all the promises that God made to Abraham, are yours as well. Gal.3:29, And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
We spend a lot of time trying to believe, when it is actually just acting on the Word that God speaks to us, through the Word. How can we say we believe the Word if we are not acting on it? When Jesus says in Jo.15:7 “if ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”. I don’t see here where He is saying “only if it is my will for you” The New Testament is His will for us today. But man will try to reason things out and say “well maybe it isn’t for me, maybe He has a bigger plan for my life, or maybe this is for the benefit of someone else and so on and on it goes.
Heb.4:2 tells us that “unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it”.
Joe
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Joe - my brother. Good post. You had me hollering hallelujah at reading this. Very true beloved. I would probably, maybe not, only differentiate with you in that after I ask God for the promise in his word, I still add at the end, but not my will, but your will Lord. I bow my desires and claims to promises to his will, who knows what is best for me/us.
Some view that as unbelief, but it has worked beautifully in my life. To believe God's word and promises for us, but to always ask for his will to be done and not mine has blessed me.
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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Broch, Sr. on
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Dear Rita,
What an excellent post. Thank you. I'm just sorry Icouldn't have jumped into the discussion before this. You've had many excellent contributions so far.
Let me say to start with: The words belief, faith, and trust are all kinda related......like cousins. The differences being in the context, content, or configuration of usage.
Take John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (KJV).
Very important!........"Believe has two applications:(1) Intellectual Belief, and(2) Experiential Belief.
Example= Your next door neighbor puts in a swimming pool. you can look out your window and see it. You know it's there (Intellectual Belief).
Now, your neighbor invites you over for a pool party. At this point, you actually experience the pool, especially on a hot summer's day.(Experiential Belief). You can feel the pool's characteristics and really know what it offers first hand.
Intellecual Belief: James 2:19 (N.A.S.B.), "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."
The demons have an Intellectual Belief of God; they know of His existance and power. Their problem is - they worship Satan.
Christians believe that Almighty God of the ages is the only One to worship, which is an Experiential Belief....because it is a spiritual relationship.
Greek usage of "believe" in the New Testament is pisteuo: means to have faith in...to entrust one's spiritual well-being to( ( Christ)...and to live a life demonstrating this belief.( John 3:16).
So if a person professes a "belief in God", but it's only an intellectual belief, because he or she is naive or a hypocrite,there is no spiritual faith there. Like Jesus says in Matthew 7:21," Not everyone who says to Me,"Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (N.A.S.B.).
This is probably what the term "shipwrecked faith" pertains to...there wasn't a true faith to start with.
"So faith comes from hearing , and hearing from the word of Christ". Romans 10:17 (N.A.S.B.). This is a person that is called through the Holy Spirit, who spiritually develops an Experiential Belief through faith... that continues to grow.... a true believer.
To be continued...........
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Now, Rita,
I'd like to continue......
In Luke 17:6, Jesus is describing how such a small quantity of faith can accomplish so much. Please notice He has not
really answered the apostle's request in verse 5 - ".......increase our faith."
I believe He answers the apostles.......and all the believers down through the ages in verses 7 thru 10.
In the Bible translations of KJV and New American Standard Bible (and possibly others) verse 7 starts with the word -" but", which is a conjunction connecting the thoughts in verse 6.
Let's see what else Jesus has to say about increasing our faith.
(7) But which of you, having a slave (or servant) plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat?' (8) But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk; and afterward you will eat and drink.'
(8) He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded does he? (10) So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.' "
So, what's our Lord saying here?.........Just that it's all about God - not us. We must constantly remember who He is.....and who we are. Do we sometimes "swell up" with spiritual pride...and think "look at me, God, all the wonderful things I'M doing.....???
We are the ones who serve. God provides what we serve, and the ability to serve it.
Rita, I'm interested in what others have to say...........
Grace and Peace.
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Joe and Richard,
What I need to do, at this point in time, is to grow my faith. But....am I doing that when I worry about money and children??????? I need more faith. I believe every Word spoken by God is true. Every word.......and yet.........my faith falters. I have a bad habit of mixing actions of others...or their short comings...in to what I believe. I want to get out of that habit. The words of you both have done much to strengthen me, as well as the words of others that have posted here. I desire to grow in faith to the point that I never worry about anything...knowing that God has my back.
The other day, I bought about 3-4 weeks of groceries. I had the money and knew I could afford to do it. These groceries will feed a dozen people or more. Then I started worrying about other obligations that I have. I know that God will supply all my needs, but...for a moment I doubted. I want to get to the place where my faith is such that I won't have those initial doubts...not even for a second. I want my kids to have this kind of faith, as well. I want them to believe God will come through every time. I don't know how to show them how He works.
When I come to my senses about these worries, I know I am still allowing my fleshly attitude to get in the way. OR the attitude of my children. I am trying to get to the point to where I count on God from the start.
Both of your posts have helped me in different ways. Both tell me to stop and think about what God has said. I guess my problem is that I don't stop and think about God from the beginning. I pray that one day I will consider God from the start...without considering my family and their attitudes in the mix. If they worry, I have a tendency to want to worry with them. I think they are putting faith in me to help them and they are putting faith in the wrong one.
My question at this point will be, how do I get them to remember to have faith in God?
Joe, you have taught me not to beg God. You have taught me that I don't need to beg God....and I don't. I expect to receive what I need. I want to show my kids how to expect God to provide. How do I do that? Is there a way to do that?
I stand on two verses, initially, in the Bible. Hebrews 11:1 and John 3:16, which you both have mentioned in different thoughts.
Blessings to you both.....
Rita
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