whatisfaith

A QUOTE - WHAT IS FAITH?

'Biblical faith is never a matter of believing impossible things. It is responding to a God-given vision... Faith means 'seeing' the world in a particular way, from an angle God has shown us.' (from 'The Bible for Everyday Life, consulting editor, George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, page 312)

8 KEY POINTS

1. Faith is NOT about believing God one minute and not the next

James 1.5-8 says that if we ask God for wisdom we should not doubt what God tells us. (Sometimes it's hard to know what God has said I know, but this is another matter!)

In Exodus 14, the Israelites had escaped from Egypt through God's power. Eventually they came to the Red Sea and were seemingly trapped. They looked in the distance and saw a furious Pharaoh heading their way with a bunch of top soldiers. What did the people do? They slagged off Moses and dissed him. '..Why did you bring us out here? Are you trying to get us killed? We should have stayed in Egypt..' Moses responded in faith. The sea parted and we know the rest. Our attitude should be like Moses not like the people!

2. Faith is NOT about believing only when things are OK or when we 'understand'

In 1 Kings 17.17-24, Elijah raised a boy from the dead by faith. Even when this boy had died in the same house where Elijah was staying and his mother was understandably stressed out at Elijah, he responded in faith and the boy was raised from the dead

3. Faith is NOT about doing something when God has not spoken. In his book, 'Adventures in Naked Faith' by Ross Tooley (page 14), he quotes a story of when Sister Yun was doing a mission in South Korea. Many people were heading up a mountain to hear her and there was heavy rain. Three young people decided to believe God to walk on the water up a muddy powerful river. Unfortunately these 3 women drowned. Why? Wasn't their faith big enough?

The answer is that they acted without getting a word from God. They went their own way. God hadn't spoken to tell them to walk up the river. Many people fail because of this. Let's look at some Biblical examples.. God told Moses to get the people out of Egypt at the burning bush (Exodus 3.10); God told Elijah to call down fire from heaven (1 Kings 8.36); Peter got a word from God it was OK to walk on the water before he plunged in (Matt 14.28-29)

In 1 Samuel 13.2-15 Saul acted as a priest (the God appointed duty of the prophet, Samuel). He acted on his own initiative because he was impatient. Because of this, God rejected Saul as King and through Samuel he told Saul (1 Samuel 13.13-14)

4. Faith CANNOT be exercised or achieved by following a set of rules. You cannot live by faith through trying to keep in God's good books. This is doomed to failure and is one reason why Jesus came and died to offer us a free gift. See Romans 3.23 and Galatians 3.11-4

5. Faith doesn't come if you don't read the Word. Romans 10.17 says that faith comes through hearing (the message). I think we need to hear the Bible, hear stories of faith in order to build up our own faith

6. Your lack of faith does NOT mean that God is not faithful (Romans 3.3-4)

7. Faith is a process, a choice and CANNOT be static. Nor is it the same for everyone. Paul writes in Romans 12.3 that you shouldn't think you are better than you are but decide who you are by the amount of faith God has given to you. Romans 4.19-20 shows that faith is not static (talks about Abraham's faith). In Hebrews 12.2 the Bible says Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, This tells us it's an ongoing process

8. Faith does NOT mean that you can live however you like. This is a distortion of the Gospel. Romans 10 is great on this, as is James 2.14-26