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.
