What is Faith, ....no really?

On any given Sunday you can walk into just about any church of various denominations and beliefs and they will in some way or another mention the word faith. They will use it in the songs they sing, it will be printed on the church programs and displayed throughout the halls of their place of worship in some form or another. I wonder though, just how many people really know what faith is. I'll be the first to admit that for a long time I simply didn't have a clue. I had an understanding of what faith was reading the scriptures and from various sermons I had heard but still a complete understanding eluded me.

I had read through dozens of bible translations, concordances, bible encyclopedias, and lexicons trying to gain an understanding of just what faith was exactly. Some concordances would define faith as "believing" but I wasn't really comfortable with that interpretation because I felt it reduced our devotion to God to a kind of "blind trust" sort of like a child's "belief" in Santa Claus. In other words, what makes Santa Claus real is OUR belief in him. Santa Claus is real because we accept the evidence of his existence as children without question BUT we also ignore the evidence that suggests that he isn't such as seeing the presents under our parents bed the week before Christmas (I of course didn't do that sort of thing). Needless to say, I rejected the idea that Faith is a blind belief in God.

After some years, I have finally come to understand what faith truly is. Hebrews 11:1 says this:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith isn't found in the "believing" but rather it is the evidence that keeps our belief consistent and continual. Since I started out talking about Santa Claus I'll use him as an example. if you've ever seen the movie The Santa Clause, you'll remember that one of the themes portrayed in the film was that Santa Claus was real. The problem was of course that the adults had stopped believing either because they didn't get what they asked Santa Clause for OR they simply grew up and forgot. Tim Allen's character however has his belief in Santa Claus renewed when he actually becomes the next Santa Claus and visits the North Pole first hand. Why did we as we got older stop believing in Santa Claus? Hebrews 11:6 says this:

Heb 11:6 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.

Do you see it? We believed as children that Santa Claus was a "REWARDER OF THOSE WHO DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM!!!!" some wrote letters, others just diligently worked to stay off Santa's naughty list. For a brief while it seemed real because Santa Claus did in some way seem to be rewarding us. Then we realized one day that it wasn't Santa Claus at all, it was our parents who were rewarding us. There was no sleigh with reindeer, there was no fat guy with a giant sack of presents, it was our parents spending their hard earned money to buy the things we asked for. Once we realized this our belief in Santa Claus fizzled.

What we often forget is that faith does not begin with us believing in God but rather it begins with his love for us. John 3:13-15:

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
-John 3:13

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
-John 3:14

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
-John 3:15

Our faith begins when we trust and accept that which God reveals to us in whatever form he chooses to do so. Whether it be a burning bush or the son of a lowly carpenter. Now's here' the part that I never understood. The continuation of our faith is not sustained by the evidence of God manifested by what we see, it is sustained in that which we do NOT see!! Our real reward isn't here on earth, it's where God is, in Heaven. It's where Christ is seated at His right hand. When we experience God in our everyday lives through prayers answered, the easing of our burdens, the restoration of a damaged relationship, these are not our rewards but rather proof that our real rewards awaits us in heavenly places. I am renewed daily knowing that one day my joy will be completely realized in the fullness of redemption. And just like we looked forward to Dec 25 every year as children that I look forward to that joyous day when we will be with Christ!!!

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
-Hebrews 11:39

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
-Hebrews 11:40

Created over 2 years ago