Forsyth, GA – A Worldly & Spiritual Insight into Faith
The meaning of faith comes from the Greek word: "pistos." Prior to beginning the general thoughts about faith in our daily lives I am going to illustrate the concept through an exchange between a man and a blind girl.
A man who had dedicated most of his life to helping people with disabilities told about his first uncomfortable moment mixing with men and women. He admitted to her that he was hampered by his attitude toward disabled people. The young blind girl encouraged him to tell her about his problem. He ended his story by saying, "You see what I mean?" He immediately blurted out an apology. And, the girl said, "yes." "I see your problem better than you do." Suddenly the man realized that disabled people understand their disabilities better than others do.
We use the word see to describe the ability to note with our eyes, and also to have insight into something. This insight is the basis for all our humanness and its humanity. We cannot see love with our eyes, but we can see love through our actions like feeling, touching and sharing time together. Think about the expression, "There is more to that than meets the eye." For our humanness, insight becomes more important than eyesight.
In Matthew 6:19-25
In this passage Jesus calls his followers to take a proper view of life. He tells them to trust God and not to allow the world to become the common denominator of their attitudes. A treasure of good deeds and love for others--- deserves more of our energy--- than endless planning for our security in life with worldly things. Our attitude toward the world and its goods will determine whether we are viewing life through the dark lenses of the world or the bright lenses of Christ's message.
There are four concepts which generally lead to a believer's response to truth or insight into that truth.
- Faith comes by hearing truth
"Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news---the Good News about Christ." (Romans 10:17) - Faith comes by the Holy Spirit's convicting of truth.
" And when He comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment." (John 16:8) - Faith comes by repentance of everything that contradicts truth and acceptance or ownership of truth.
"They should gently teach those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will believe the truth."(2Timothy 2:25) - Finally, beliefs become faith when we act upon the truth that we are convicted of by doing what it tells us to do (James 1:22). Our beliefs do not become faith until this step is taken.
So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. And, remember it is a message to obey and not just listen to. If you don't obey you are only fooling yourself." (James 1:21-22).
Faith is not just knowing what God says. If you think that is what faith is, you are deceiving yourself about faith. Faith without doing what God says is nothing more than an "ism" of a belief (beliefism). It is not Biblical faith. That is what James is talking about in 2:14-26. "Knowing truth without "doing" that truth, is dead faith" (James 2:30 and 26).
