Faith

Faith is a tricky thing. It can be easy to think we have no faith.

In truth, we exercise faith every day. We have faith the cup will hold the coffee, the sugar will sweeten the tea and the chair will hold us as we sit on it. We use faith so often we don't even realise it is faith.

We were designed to believe. That basic design is hardwired into the human psyche in a way no psychologist can ever fully understand. We believe.

Believing is easy. I believe God exists. I don't have to do anything to prove this, merely state it. I believe He can heal, I believe He can prosper. Believing isn't enough. James writes "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" (James 2:19) Satan believes. It won't save him.

Mere belief is useless. What if Peter had believed he could walk on the water, but never stepped out of the boat? What if Moses had believed God could deliver the Israelites from Egypt but had not stepped into the Red Sea? Our beliefs alone are worthless husks of a pointless exercise.

Faith on the other hand produces action.

Faith let Peter step out of the boat, let Moses step into the sea, let Jesus climb Calvary's Hill...

We must be moved by our faith. We move because we have faith, not because we have evidence we can sense with our five physical senses.

We had an example of this recently. My brother in law and my wife both reached a crossroads professionally recently involving their careers. Both had to choose between two paths. Both involved a drastic change or staying where they were. My wife finally felt that for now she should stay where she is. Her brother felt it was time for him to move and he resigned to move out on his own. Each of them was moved by the faith they have that God is in control and He will lead them in the direction they need to take.

We all face choices in our daily lives, some bigger than others. We often have to go on faith to justify our decisions, yet we dismiss it so easily.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence oth things unseen we are told in Hebrews. Faith brings the unseen into the physical realm. Health, prosperity, salvation and eternal life are all obtained by faith. Whether we gain health by pills or by prayer, faith is ultimately what causes it. We take the pills because we have faith they will work, yet we often don't even consider asking God to intervene because there is a pill we can take. We prosper through hard work - sometimes - and we play the lottery and cross our fingers for a bit extra, but we don't call out to God for that.

We are saved by the Faith God gives us, and we have Eternal Life through Him, but we don't fully walk in that. Rather we plod through this life, setting up home in the valley of the shadow of death and being greatful it will be over soon. We forget what we have been given and go through religious rituals to try to eran God's pleasure instead of just being real and trusting Him.

Faith without works is dead. Not limited, dead.

Unless we put our faith into action we will for ever be trapped in the stagnation of our lives, draggin onwards until death releases us to have the tears wiped away as we weep at the final realisation of what our lives here could have been if only we had acted on our faith...