christian@topaz.UUCP (03/29/87)
Hi, 3/27/87 Some thoughts on faith --- Faith is belief in the unseen, my hopes for the future. I believe in God because of what I want for today and for my future. He placed those wants in my heart. This is one way He gave me the gift of faith - He gave me the desires found in my heart. The promises made by God in Scripture are held by faith. They are promises I want to believe in, so I choose to believe in them, and I hold onto them by my faith. The freewill God gave us enables us to choose to accept the gift of faith or reject it. Because faith is a gift, rather than something we create or make, we cannot judge another's faith. Maybe God hasn't given them the opportunity or the gift yet, maybe He has. We are not the judges. We do not know all things about another's life. Do we even know everything about our own? Faith cannot be proved. If something can be proved it doesn't require faith to hold onto it, only data. To argue faith is futile. To share my faith, that is, my hopes for today and the future, is to share my belief in the God who gave me those hopes. Faith is personal ... between me and who I believe to be God. I can share my views of God, but I cannot make another see Him my way. No two people see God the same. God can only work thru faith ... without faith He cannot work in or for you, another person or a situation. Remember Jesus' return to His own home town, and how He could not do any major miracles, but only lay His hands on a few; all due to their lack of faith in Him and His abilities. And He's God! God's ability to help them was totally dependent on their faith in Him. The same is true today for us. Faith, like prayer (which requires faith to be effective), is a channel, like a pipe, thru which God's Grace flows. God's Grace is His Divine power at work for us, and thru us for others and situations. No one can change how another person believes, or what they believe. We can love them in Christ's Name thru our prayers for them, and our service to them should the opportunities present themselves. A living faith shows itself in works. Just like prayer, faith that leads to action is alive and healthy. Exercising our faith is like exercising our bodies - if we act, we build ourselves up, then we can better help others build themselves up, too. Faith must be entrenched in God's love. Having enough faith to die for God, but not done out of love for God, is a meaningless faith. The fruits of a faith nourished by God's love are beautiful to see and like a fragrance. Faith is built by reading *and* hearing the word of God. Read the Scriptures aloud. Faith is nourished thru prayer, which is a channel for God's love to flow. God Bless, Mike Andrews (PTL)