Faith Archives - Page 9 of 16

What is Faith?

Last week I started with an article called How to Have Faith. Beginning this series on faith, one of the most important questions to ask is “What is Faith?” You don’t hear it a lot in everyday conversations. Is it something that is used in church circles? Can it be more than a trigger word used Sunday mornings?

I’m sure there is a super deep answer to the above questions. Those types of definitions and explanations don’t resonate with me. I like to start with the most basic definition and then build from there. For me, Faith is Trust.

Complete Trust

Faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something (Webster’s Dictionary). To say that I have faith in God means that I have complete trust and confidence in Him. I trust Him to honor His word, the Bible.

Sometimes it can seem hard to trust God because we can rely so much on our five senses as the basis for what we put our trust in. It’s easy to trust that my paycheck will be in my bank account because I physically went to work for the past two weeks.

It can be easy to trust in something like gravity because our feet are still in contact with the ground. We haven’t heard any stories of people that suddenly were walking and then floating.

In each of these examples there is an aspect where one or more of our five senses is involved. So why is the struggle to have faith in God so real?

Do We Trust our 5 Senses?

Trusting or having faith in God can be a struggle because we must do without our five senses or in a way that our five senses are not used to. Can I touch, see, hear, taste, or smell God?

It is through our hearts that I believe we experience God. Through that experience, we can involve our five senses. God can touch my heart in a way that pain is no longer there. In my heart, I can see a brighter future than I deserve. It is in my heart that I hear His voice speaking to me. Through the experience, I can taste life as God has it.

As Good As His Word

People use to say that a man was only as good as his word. I’ve think we’ve lost sight of that today. Most people are only good if there is something in it for them. God, however, is as good as His word.

Isaiah 55:11(KJV)
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Like any relationship, trust in the other person begins in small steps. Let’s begin to trust God with small steps. From my own experience, I can tell you that it will be the beginning of the best relationship that you will ever have.

3 Amazing Reasons Why You Should See The Case for Christ

The Case for Christ

My wife and I recently watched The Case for Christ. If you are not aware, this is a movie that is currently in theaters. It is based off the best selling book by the same name written by Lee Strobel.

Spoiler Alert! This isn’t necessarily a review of The Case for Christ, but I will reveal details and takeaways I got from the movie. I believe that there are at least three reasons that Christians and non-Christians should see this movie.

The Christian

1. Lee’s wife, Leslie, in the movie is a great depiction of how Christians should act. Leslie is the first in her marriage to accept Jesus and become a Christian. It is through her journey of her trying to find her way in her new faith, while also wanting to not lose her marriage.

Every Christian should be able to defend what they believe in. Sadly, most can’t do this without stumbling over themselves. Leslie, while not knowing and reciting every scripture to her husband, tries to relate her real experience with Jesus.

We can take something important from this. Knowing the scriptures is important, but it may not be what brings someone to know Christ. It’s our experience that may bridge the gap. It has to be real to us.

The Skeptic

2. Lee’s journey is the central story that both believers and unbelievers can learn from. Lee took it upon himself to investigate and even disprove the resurrection of Jesus, he did all the work himself.

What we can learn from this is to investigate for ourselves. As Christians, we just take what a teacher, preacher or someone on TV says without researching it for ourselves. The same can be said for people who are not believers. Our society is full of people who regurgitate and not enough investigators. We are great at telling people what we have seen or read on social media and not enough time telling them what we have learned for ourselves.

Their Marriage

3. Lee and Leslie’s relationship is relate-able to all of us. Through this journey, we get to see them go through their up and downs. It is through that journey that we see their love for each other. Their love is strong and they earnestly fight for their relationship, all the way to the breaking point.

In every meaningful relationship that we have, we should be willing to fight for it.

I encourage everyone to see The Case for Christ. My wife and I enjoyed it and we hope you do too. There are a lot of things that we can learn that hopefully we will put into practice. If you’ve seen it let me know what you thought in the comments.

Faith vs Fear

What If?

Have you ever looked at a situation from your past and wondered “what if?” What if I had made this decision instead of this one. What if I taken this job rather than the one I have. What if I had stuck to my diet instead of quitting after a couple of days or weeks. What if I had taken my relationship with God as serious as I took other things in my life.

All around us we can see the “What Ifs.” The opportunities and chances we had were laid out in front of us and we made a decision. Maybe not a confident decision, but at least we made a decision, right. We should some sort of life points for that.

Faith or Fear

No, we shouldn’t get points for that. The opportunities and decisions that are always in front of us are markers on the road of life that tell us if we are in faith or fear. These two aspects drive every decision we make in life whether we realize it or not. Faith and fear are two sides of coin.

2 Sides of a coin

Faith, the side that believes the decisions we make are going to drive us toward the destiny that God has for us. It may cause us to be uncomfortable and to step outside of our boxes, but ultimately those decisions and choices will lead us to what God has for us. Fear, the side that believes that the decision we make are going to lead to a life of pain and trouble. So we won’t make any decision and go through our lives not striving for anything and settling for everything. Not making a decision is in itself a decision.

Walking on Water

I love the story from the Bible of Peter walking on the water to Jesus. To me it illustrates both faith and fear. Faith is shown by Peter getting out of the boat and then walking on the water to Jesus. Peter makes a decision and then takes the necessary actions to follow that decision. In doing so, he does something incredible. There is also Fear. If you’ve read the story, you know that Peter showed fear when he began to look at the storm that was around him. That’s not the fear that I’m talking about here. While Peter is doing something amazing, I see fear in the other disciples. The same opportunity was laid out before all of them.

Be Not Afraid

Jesus told them all who He was and to Be not afraid. But it was only Peter who decided to follow after Faith rather than Fear. The other disciples could have gotten out of the boat. They could have walked on the water to Jesus too.

But they may have been thinking some of the same things that we think today.

“I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”
“I can’t possibly to that.”
“That’s only for Peter to do.”
“The other guys are in the boat, so I’ll stay in the boat too.”

Do Something Amazing

Sometimes we may beat it into the ground that Peter began to sink while walking on the water, but don’t lose the aspect that he made a decision in faith that lead him to do something amazing. Even in his failing to make it all the way to Jesus by walking on the water, he accomplished something that none of the other disciples could say.

There are so many opportunities that present themselves to us on a daily basis, we have to be aware of which side of the coin we’ve flipped. Are we going by Faith or Fear?

Make a decision today to live by Faith. Like Peter, don’t let those around you keep you from a decision that could propel you something amazing.