What is faith? How is it used? What is it used for? And how does one obtain it?I believe these questions are important enough to be asked because life demands faith in a variety of circumstances (ex. other drivers on the road, your employer to deliver a paycheck, the nature of our creator, your spouse to be faithful, etc...). And if that faith is misplaced it will be to your detriment, even unto death.
Before you continue reading; consider whether or not you, subconsciously, interchange the word faith, with the word belief/believe as I did. By doing this I, and those who know me, missed countless blessing that our creator, through life as we know it, has to offer.
According to Webster's dictionary the word "believe" means choosing to accept something as true (and "truth" is defined as something that is in accordance with fact or reality ["fact" or "reality" meaning something that is proven or otherwise verifiable]).
What is faith?
The most common response that I've received when I asked others (religious and secular); is that faith is "spiritual" and cannot be fully grasped or defined. I quote that word because, like the word "faith", "spiritual" is another term that people use ambiguously (in this article, I'm not going to try to define it though). Interestingly, to me, the only direct answer I was offered is a single verse from the Bible in a letter to some Hebrews in it's 11th chapter and first verse which says: "Faith is the evidence of things unseen, the substance of things hoped for..."I've long accepted that as a definition, until I began writing this article and realized that it is more of a description of faith not a literal definition.
According to Webster's dictionary "faith is the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or some thing." Of course Webster's isn't, necessarily, the authority, but I think you'll find the rest of this exposition to prove that definition as consistent and true.
I've found, although, that most people who claim to have faith in the nature of our creator disagree that faith is a feeling at all. I, too, felt that way prior to starting this article. But, I realized I couldn't explain why! Maybe because I viewed it as irreverent to God? (Because I view faith in the nature of our creator as the most critical use of any application faith has in our life - although it's, obviously, not the only thing faith can be applied to.)
You see, faith is a noun (nouns are the subject of a verb). This implies that it doesn't do anything. By itself. Kind of like... a feeling! You may feel love for your spouse, but if that doesn't manifest itself with action; it's vain.
I've heard faith, when invested into our creator, described as "information from-God to-you." Which is an interesting summary when you look at this example from how the Bible teaches one of it's most renown stories of a man of faith:
"So God said (informed or described) to Noah: 'I have decided to destroy all living creatures. ... Build a large boat ...'" ~ Genesis 6:13-14
How is it used?
Faith is used by belief.For example; oars are an object. They don't do anything by themselves. So, too, faith may not do anything, but... belief... does.
Because believe is a verb (verbs are words used to describe actions). So if you have faith in me, for example, when I say "Oars enable you to move a boat." you would say "Ok." But if you believe me then you would prove your faith by grabbing them, getting in the boat, and starting to row.
Let me use a real world example to illustrate a practical application:
I believe God exists because I have proof through deduction and by observation that we were created. I don't need faith in that instance. But when you don't have proof; faith is required (assuming ignorance isn't an option). So I do need faith to believe in God's promises. Why? Because promises are things yet-to-happen. Meaning there is no evidence, facts or reality to prove them as presently true.
What is it used for?
Although there is a follow up question to this, I believe this is the pinnacle point of this article.Since faith can be used for many things, as I established at the beginning of this article, I want to focus on the most influential purpose of faith. So I lead in with this question: what good is faith in the nature of our creator if, ultimately, our lives surmount with death?
It would be vain, really. I mean right? Feel free to comment a disagreement, but I can't see any benefit beyond temporal satisfaction. Not that vanity is equivalent to uselessness. It just wouldn't seem to be worth writing an article like this otherwise.
Unless...
...
That creator made a promise of eternal life through a resurrection...
In which case it becomes immeasurably valuable.
I mean... right?
And how does one obtain it?
Since we've established the invaluable worth to faith in the nature of God, assuming you can't debunk my conclusion, it would seem like you would be asking (like I did) "Man, if that's for real then how do I 'get' this faith?"The answer, once again, is right under our nose. How do you gain faith in anything or anyone?
You experience it.
If you have a best friend, you probably, hopefully, really trust them. That's a form of faith. If you do; it's probably because they did something like help you move, bring you food when you were sick, lend you money, etc... So it was by getting to know them, and actively doing things with them that you built that faith in their character. The more you have faith in them the more you spend time with them.
I'm sure the same has happened on the opposite with someone, maybe even that same friend, when they didn't follow through or they let you down. You lost a little faith in them, in their character. As a result you probably spent less time with them.
With faith in our creator, it's a little more ambiguous than that because you're trying to interact with something that is so beyond, and all encompassing of, what we are as mere humans that you have to breakdown the expectation that you'll fully experience that creator only if they become human and stand before you (see Jesus for reference, haha). If you're struggling with that concept I'd encourage you to read this article where I explain it a little more.
Beside from directly experiencing our creator there is at least one other way I know of: other people.
If you want to know if a restaurant is good what do you do? If you're like me you probably look for reviews. I often start by asking my friends and family because I trust them. Hearing their stories about their experiences builds my faith that about the kind of experience I can expect.
So to asking people who say they have faith in God's character and nature is a great place to start. Be that friends or family. But my personal favorite (because I only have three friends - which technically aren't friends if you don't count my wife and two kids) is THE BIBLE. I'm not saying it's perfect, or the only way to build and maintain faith, but it's a great starting place.
Reading this article right now is me sharing my faith with you. And if you find yourself feeling encouraged and confident about this idea: BAM. You now have faith. If you want more of it; I'd love to share more stories about my experiences in life that have grown my faith in our creators good nature. Or you can simply ask our creator using whatever means you have (speaking out loud, writing it down, whatever...).
Conclusion
I'd like to make it abundantly clear that I don't believe we were born to die so God could dangle eternal life in front of us like a horse and a carrot. Rather, I believe that we were designed to live perpetually; as evolution clearly represents with so many things. My favorite being our body's ability to self-heal. And it's the result of a single free-willed act of disobedience that introduced a virus, that can, and will, be starved some day, that resulted in exactly what God said it would: death.
I believe that one "sin" introduced death into the world because death is the absence of life. It is not a thing in and of itself, like drinking water from a glass is not filling it with emptiness but emptying it of water. So, too, when we rebel against the way we were created (our nature) then we are subtly killing, or destroying, a part of ourselves that can only be restored by our creator through obedience to him.
Which is why the hope of resurrection, to be made perfect again, is such a wonderful promise to believe in. And why it has permanently changed my love and hope for humanity and our universe. That I can believe that I, with my faith, play a critical part in restoring humanity and the universe back to that intended state.
It's truly worth sharing.
Assuming you agree with my exposition, I hope you will consider this final question:
If you have faith in Jesus' promise of resurrection from death; how does that change the way you're going to live today from the way you lived yesterday?
Annotations
If you enjoyed and benefited from my exposition above it may benefit you to review some annotations from the things that instigated the writing of this article in the first place:- "It's truly worth sharing." I mean that to be a play on Jesus' Great Commission to preach the Good News about God (his nature and character).
- James 2:17 says that "Faith without works (belief) is dead (useless)."
- Here's a Scriptural example of faith coupled with belief: "So Noah did (notice the verb?) exactly as God commanded him." ~ Genesis 6:22
- There wasn't any way for Noah to prove God had spoken to him (as far as we know). So it was by faith in the nature of God and how he speaks to humans that he, and a few others, believed.
- It's interesting, to me, that you can believe something without faith (supplementing faith for proof or ignorance). But faith is useless without belief.
- The antonym of faith is doubt. And doubt prevents belief.
- I'd like to note that the definition of faith is almost identical to the definition of "confidence". As an exercise; imagine replacing every instance of the word "faith" in the Bible with the word "confidence
