Having always being taught and pushed to live by faith I felt it time to challenge my own belief on faith. Shake my own foundations and stir my emotions. What is faith? Is it positive thinking? A feeling? The belief that Jesus died for your sins? Confidence? Hope? Or is there something more?
I dont think there is any quick way to 'sum up' faith. But here is a small look into the beginning of my understanding...
We are taught so often to just 'step out' in faith. As though we are walking in the dark and into the unknown. blindfolded, confused and so often, mislead. To me you cannot have faith without first understanding the evidence of faith.
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things unseen.
Although faith is not based purely on evidence, it is definitely supported by evidence. Faith is not about turning off the brain and merely relying on the heart, or squashing reason in favour of emotion. That is 'blind faith', Rather faith is about seeking and knowing Jesus with all facets of the human character. It's a "calculated faith" based on a continual preponderance of the evidence.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Did you notice that faith involves “evidence” of things “not seen”? The marginal rendering of “substance” is “assurance.” Faith involves an assurance “of things hoped for.” But, if something is hoped for, that something has not yet been received. Therefore, where faith is involved, there is an assurance that it will be received!
Real faith, in any promise made by God, is actually the evidence. It is the belief that is the evidence. If God promises to do something, it is impossible for Him to lie. Your evidence that He has and will perform it, is the very unwavering faith that you hold. If we have true faith, we do not need to search for the evidence — we already possess it!
I have faith that Jesus is the Son of God and He came to this earth 2,000 years ago to offer true and lasting hope for mankind because I have experience the evidence of this unseen salvation.
I think we must look at faith like this... Find the chair closest to you. Look at it closely. Examine its design. Is it structurally sound? Is it sufficiently engineered? Will the materials chosen by the manufacturer support your weight? Most likely, you picked a chair that you believe will support you. That's belief. You applied logic, knowledge and experience to make an informed intellectual decision.
Now sit in the chair... That's faith! Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof. Intellectual assent only goes so far. Faith requires more then logic, knowledge and experience. It requires that we continually put our beliefs into action. Intellectual belief without actionable faith is hollow and meaningless...
I believe Faith is persistently propelling 2 questions at mankind. there is no intelligent wording or hidden meanings, but rather 2 simple questions which challenge us to go further then we have before. These questions being 'What are you believing for?'
& 'What are you willing to do about it?'
Faith isn't faith until it's all you're holding on to. I believe we block our dream when we allow our fear to grow bigger than our faith. too often we are not willing to put our faith into action, for what we believe is based on fear and not faith. We must decide to have confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time, and we must understand we need not physical evidence but understanding that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. When we let go of fear, only then can we gracefully move from what was into the miracle of what can be. Faith Begins when fear ends.
"Miracles are not a contradiction of nature. They are only in contradiction of what we know of nature." - St. Augustine
