Faith Study Part 1

I'm going to start by saying Faith is such a huge topic I am not going to put everything in one post as it would be too long and most people might not want to read a novel length posting. So this will be part one in the study of Faith.

Faith is a huge topic in the Christian community today and it very well should be. The word Faith comes from the Greek word peitho, it is used upwards of and if not more than 300 times in the New Testament alone; needless to say faith is very important.

Now that we have established its importance, what does it mean?

I used to believe that faith was just knowing in your heart that whatever you had faith in was true and certain. Websters gives a similar definition: "a firm belief in something in which there is no proof". This I believe is what a lot of people may view as faith, a firm belief. While that is not wrong the Bible shows that there is so much more involved in faith than just knowing in your heart of hearts that something is true.

Throughout the Bible faith (peitho) is translated into various English words: persuaded, believed, obey, agree, trusted, having made a friend, assured, have confidence, committed, and faith. The Anglo Saxon word for faith is actually translated "by life" So faith is more than just knowing, it is living what you know. There is a funny fictional story that gives a great example of what true faith is:

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats.  All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.

An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls."

Now, Tightrope wrote back, "Sir, I'd love to come."

Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. He comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily.

The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it."

"No," said Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do, you just did it."

"No, no, no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?"

"Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."

"Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow."

Now I know this is just fictional but it shows true faith is doing more than just saying "I believe", it's about you being living proof of the faith you have within yourself.

Hebrews 11 is what some might call the "Faith Chapter" and rightly so, it has at least 26 uses of faith within that single chapter. I want to encourage you to read the entire chapter yourself because there are a lot of neat things listed in here and if you have time go back and read some of the stories about these faithful servants that are throughout the Old Testament.

Hebrews 11 starts of by explaining what faith is: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen." in verse 6 it says that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him"

Faith: the assurance (confidence, steadfastness of mind) of things hoped for, and the conviction (proof) of things not yet seen.

• The hope is actually speaking about salvation; the return of Christ, that is what our hope should be in. [We can cover that at another time].
•  And we need to have a conviction of things we can not yet see.
• We were not here on the earth to witness Jesus Christ personally but in Acts 17:31 it says that God has furnished proof to all men by raising Jesus from the dead.
• Where does this proof come from?
• In short it is from the Holy Spirit. If Jesus didn't go to the Father (wasn't resurrected) then the Holy Spirit would not be here for mankind to be able to obtain (John 14 talks about this). So although Jesus isn't here in His flesh walking on the earth we are still able to have that conviction or proof in Him through the Holy Spirit.

Faith is a must have; without it we are not even able to please God. We have to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Next time we will go into some examples of faith to see what true faith looks like and go into some of the stories that are listed in Hebrews 11. If you want to look into some of those ahead of time and share what the Lord shows you we would love to hear it.