Faith (article) by Peter Jessop on AuthorsDen

A short article about faith and what exactly it is.

Faith, what exactly is faith? There have been many quips and quotes over the years; feed your faith and doubt will starve to death; doubt makes the mountain which faith can move; faith is the magic formula that supplies starch to the spine; fear falls before the fortress of faith; or finally, faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you isn’t true . No doubt we all have our own definition of this word beyond the dictionary, and history is full of people who acted on faith above all else. Two names that spring to mind are Joan of Arc and David both acting on faith. But what then is an act of faith? Is it simply an act that demonstrates or tests the strength of a person’s conviction, as an important personal sacrifice? Or is it something more?

Joan of Arc raised a whole country to arms saving it from certain defeat at the hands of the English. Even the King of France put his faith in her, allowing a 19-year-old girl to be the spearhead of his army. While David acted on faith to fight Goliath with a simple slingshot and won, and as a result, the whole army fought at his side and won a great battle.

There are acts of faith that take place every day in the world and in our lives, hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands. Many will assign them as simply luck, or allocate them to their own capabilities, while others will attribute them to a higher power, a spiritual influence. But perhaps the greatest stories of faith are found in the Holy Bible and those that believe in the one God and his only begotten Son, and if we do believe such a thing then aren’t we living every day of our lives by faith. However, we might define it, we all have it, whether we believe fully in it or not. In times of distress, disaster, tragedy, do we not pray or cry out to God for help or deliverance, and when the danger is over is our faith strengthened or weakened? Surely if there is no faith in us, we wouldn’t ask for help from some unseen presence, some higher entity, and yet we do. We all have this ability within us it’s just a question of acting upon it.

Many of us may scoff, laugh, or ridicule someone who has faith in God, or faith in general, but just like hope, faith is a good thing, perhaps the best thing. Unlike the world God doesn’t call us to be successful, he calls us to be faithful. He makes a promise – faith believes it, hope anticipates it, patience quietly awaits it. A walk by faith every day of our lives is not a weakness but a strength. Having faith means you don’t need something proven to you, you just believe. And if you do need something proven to you without a shadow of a doubt before you’ll believe; then what? Once it has been proven to you. Is your life better or worse off? In truth faith in God, or in general, can conquer any travail. Genuine faith is assuring, insuring, and enduring, a person’s faith is not judged by what they say about it, but by what they do about it. Faith keeps the person who keeps their faith, and how would a person ever know whether their faith was weak or strong unless it has been tried and tested. Afterall in the end don’t we all need faith that will not shrink when washed in the waters of affliction and adversity.

The world today has become extremely unstable, we live in a season of much anger and disbelief, whether that be towards our governments, our leaders, our institutions, our churches or our fellow man and woman; for no one can be reasonable and angry at the same time. It is hard to discern today what is fact and what is fiction, what is truth and what is lies, who to believe and who not to believe, new doctrines and philosophies are thrown around at the drop of a hat. And amongst all this chaos people are crying out for a savior, a leader to rise and take them into a better future, willing to put their faith in this political candidate or that political candidate, or in this person or that person, or in this teacher or that teacher, or in this guru or that guru. And yet hasn’t history shown us again and again when we put our faith in a person of the flesh that individual always fails. For doesn’t it say in the Bible that a leader will always fall when man places that leader higher than Almighty God. Food for thought.

In conclusion does not faith give us the courage to face the present with confidence, and the future with expectancy, also does not the greatness of our fears shows us the littleness of our faith. When we cease to use our faith, we lose it. How much better a place would the world be if we were all unified by faith? And if we truly need an example, then perhaps there is no better demonstration of faith than a farmer planting seed in a field.