Some say it means believing something that you want to be true, yet cannot prove. Others say that it means believing only in what you can see and trust. Still others say that faith is like living in the unknown. There is no explanation, nor can there be. It is a mystery that simply needs to be accepted.
Sadly, too many of us live with weak or inadequate views of faith like these. And the wrong definition of faith leads to a weak experience of faith, which leads to a weak sense of trust that would result to abandonment.
Faith is not about believing in some unknown mystery. Its not about blind leap. Neither does it have to do with trusting in something we can touch and feel-- something that is limited to this world.
"Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen"(Hebrews 11:1)
The Greek word "pistis", which we translate as "faith", more accurately means being trustworthy. Can a person be trustworthy if we they do not exist? Can a person be trustworthy if we cannot believe that what they are saying is true?
Our faith does not make God real. Our faith is our response to a real and living God who has made himself known to us through his Son. The church has never said, "Take a leap of faith into the dark." Rather, the invitation is always to " come into the light."
In the Book of Isaiah, God tells us: "I am the Lord and there is no other... so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun men may know that there is none beside me" (Isaiah 45:5,6).
Be certain that God exists. Believe that he reigns on high. Put your hope in Him, and He will reward you with strength, wisdom and love.(The Word Among Us)
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