“Leap of Faith”
When people talk about faith, it is obvious, most of the time they mean hope rather than faith. When we ask for healing, for example, we hope, rather than expect direct divine intervention. Oftentimes we are not sure if God would heal us. In fact, we are not even sure if it is His will to heal us. This is in great contrast to the example of Christ who always expected God to grant His petition (John 11:41-42).
This universal lack of faith today is not unexpected. Jesus had anticipated it when he asked:
Part of the problem is obviously the fact that faith is not something we can see, hear, taste, smell or touch. It is hard to believe on something that does not register in one of our senses. But perhaps more importantly, we in this 21st century, are so immersed in material concerns, which compete with our focus on God. God obviously is not as real as He should be in the lives of most people today — which, needless to say, directly impacts on faith.
Bible Definition of Faith
The Bible gives a very brief and straightforward definition of faith:
From the Strong’s Greek lexicon “substance” here means:
a setting under (support), that is, (figuratively) concretely essence, or abstractly assurance (objectively or subjectively): – confidence, confident, person, substance.
Thayer Greek Definition gives the following explanation on substance:
1) a setting or placing under, 1a) thing put under, substructure, foundation
2) that which has foundation, is firm; that which has actual existence; a substance, real being; the substantial quality, nature, of a person or thing; the steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution; confidence, firm trust, assurance
Notice the phrase “a setting under” [Strong's] and “thing put under” [Thayer]. This just shows that faith is not blind hope. Our hope rests on something underneath it. It rests on some substance — and that substance is what faith is all about.
Now notice the word “confidence”. This, we will see as we go on with this discussion, is an important aspect of faith.
How We Acquire Faith
Concerning faith, Paul wrote:
Faith, in short, is derived from studying God’s word, the Bible.
But, you might say: “I have been studying God’s word all my life, why can’t I seem to have enough faith?”
This is the crux of this matter of faith. There is more to faith than mere intellectual knowledge.
The skydiver [in picture above] is a good illustration of the concept of faith as defined by Heb.11:1. What makes a skydiver confident of landing safely in his free fall? It is the paraglider wing and harness that are in place to support him when he activates it – plus the weeks or months of preparation and practice that he underwent beforehand. Faith is very much like this.
Remember David and Goliath? How can David be so confident of defeating Goliath? Let’s read that inspiring story again:
1Sa 17:32 And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him [Goliath]; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
1Sa 17:33 And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
Notice what David said:
1Sa 17:35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
1Sa 17:36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
1Sa 17:37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
Can you see why David was so confident?
It is because in previous “smaller” occassions, he had experienced God’s intervention. His confidence in God built up in the course of his experience. He did not face Goliath on blind faith. He had so much confidence because he had seen God’s hands personally – mainly because of the close relationship he had with God.
Note how David filled his mind with the works and miracles that God performed in the past:
Psa 77:12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Stories of miracles recorded in the Torah such as the parting of the Red Sea and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt must have been so vivid – and such an inspiration – to David. Now notice how his own past experience with God’s intervention helped:
Psa 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Psa 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
David constantly meditated on the things that God did for him. This, I’d say can only have given David the supreme confidence that he had. This confidence is exactly the faith that sustained him through bigger challenges that he faced later on, including this encounter with Goliath.
As the popular passage says:
Faith is not an emotion that we work up and agonize about. It is what we live by everyday of our lives. We don’t develop faith by merely reading about faith. We have to experience it. We have to personally experience what it is like to be in God’s hand. Sometimes, from my own experience, it is when I find myself at the end of the rope that I experience God’s intervention. Such situation, I believe, cannot be avoided, if we are to develop faith. How can we develop faith for healing, for example if we readily resort to doctors and medicine for every ailment that we experience? It effectively relegates God’s promise of healing to standby or “spare tire” role and we gain nothing from the experience.
One value of faith is that it relieves us of much anxieties in life. If we do our part the best way we can — we can calmly expect God to supply our needs, when we ask [Matt.6:25-33].
In summary, to develop faith we need to be close to God through study and meditation of His word, especially the works and miracles that He performed and we need to personally experience and live faith in our daily lives.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks AlexM for your encouraging feedback.