Gravity will bring me back to the ground if I jump. There are absolutes in our world and we cannot escape them. All of us have faith, whether in God or ourselves or gravity, we cannot escape faith.
Am I to be limited to what I see? I cannot see the wind but I feel it, will you call me sentimental and driven by my emotions? Am I limited to what I can understand and grasp with my feeble mind? If so, my world can’t extend into the pain of an African mother as she watches her children starve. She clings to their frail bodies as they die in her arms and feels a pain I cannot comprehend. I trust that history is true though I could not be there. So, I have faith in Jesus: his life, death and resurrection.
If I put my faith in my own mind or ability to accomplish something it will be limited by the greatness of my strength. If I believed I could fly the belief alone wouldn’t keep me from face-planting in the ground. Faith is only as strong as the source that anchors it.
Suspension of belief
Faith is trust. The dictionary defines faith as, “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” In order to have faith we must trust God and not doubt that his word is true. We trust in his unchangeable nature: he is good and cannot lie. Faith in God requires us to sacrifice our own perceptions of the world in exchange for his perspective. It means giving up habits and thoughts that destroy us so we might be reborn into a life of joy found in God and his ways.
Faith in God is different than the faith I have that this chair won’t crumble under my weight when I sit in it. Faith in God takes trust to a whole different level. He is a person. It’s like love. When you love a dog you know you will be returned without needing to do much to please that dog. When you love a person you realize the complexities of that love and every expression of love. You find it’s a lot more rewarding and yet takes a lot more effort and sacrifice. Yet, who in a loving relationship would look into the eyes of those they love, see the pain and sacrifice that brought them here and say, “I would have rather had a dog.”
Faith in God is similar.
The strongest fibers of a Faith in God is relationship. Just as faith comes through knowledge and teaching, the best teacher is God himself. All of creation was made because God desired to have a relationship with us. So the foundation and building stones of our faith is on relationship with him.
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4
Next topic, Doubt in the place between Questions and Answers.
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