“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” (Hebrews 11:1-2 NLT)
How do you define faith? Think about that for a few minutes. To me faith is ______________! What did you come up with? It’s interesting to me that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines faith as “allegiance to duty or a person; loyalty; belief and trust in God; confidence; a system of religious beliefs.”
While some of those definitions help in a broad sense, to me they fail to grasp the significance of personal trust, dependence, reliance, that conveys absolute confidence in a personal, intimate Friend. My faith in my wife goes much deeper than mere confidence that she will remain faithful to me, in terms of our exclusive love relationship.
Faith, in my understanding, defines the perimeters of our whole relationship, whether it’s with a spouse, friend, employer, or God. Faith determines our level of confidence, not only in the person with whom we have a relationship, but in our own ability to carry out our part in that relationship. For example. Let’s say I’m building a friendship with a new neighbor.
They’ve just moved in so we know very little if anything about them. Since we’ve developed no trust, can we immediately share with them personal information about our finances, our health, or any other personal information that could be misconstrued? Personally, I’m very reserved with sharing detailed information about myself with almost anyone, especially a stranger. But the point is, faith will guide the development of any relationship.
When it comes to the Lord, how does faith help us? Faith has to do with belief. What I believe about anyone is going to have a bearing on how I relate to them and whether or not I even want a relationship with them. If someone lies to me or speaks negatively about me behind my back, I’m very likely not going to pursue a relationship with them.
Similarly, because God has a proven track record of faithfulness, kindness, generosity, love, and goodness, my heart should be inclined to open to His authority and leadership in my life. George Muller gives us insight when he writes: “Faith begins where man’s power ends.”
In my mind a huge element in building our faith in God is trust. Geoge Muller’s trust was so great that as a caregiver for many orphans, he would have them sit down for a meal with nothing to give them to eat, except his absolute confidence that God would provide. Inevitably there would be a knock on his door and a baker, dairyman, grocer, or friend would be there to provide more than enough to feed the hungry kids.
When we learn to have that kind of unwavering confidence in our Savior, we’ll finally understand the real basis of what faith is and we’ll find that many of the things with which we wrestle in the energy of the flesh will be evaporated in the power of the Spirit through our unflinching faith, our undeniable confidence in the unwavering trust we have in our perfect Savior.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 