What Is Faith?

In the King James version of the Bible the word “Faith” appears 247 times.  One of my favorite passages on faith is Romans 5:1-2 NIV; Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

The call on the Christian is to have the sort of trust that makes us prepared to put our entire lives into God’s hands. Look at Proverbs 3:5 NIV; Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

Simply believing in God is no good to us. We are to have faith, and trust is the practical outworking of faith.

Faith in God sometimes seems like a nebulous, insubstantial or impractical concept, doesn’t it? It’s hard to pin down exactly what it means; it’s hard to know whether we really have “faith”.

Let me attempt to put faith and trust in terms that the average person can understand for it is a critical component not only of a born again Christian but those seeking to know and accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

We know there are those who understand how the human body is nourished and sustained from the food we eat. They have studied how our bodies derive the necessary vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients from food to function and thrive. There are in fact entire careers built on this understanding.

There are also those who completely understand how an automobile engine functions to propel our vehicles from one place to another. Again careers are made from this understanding.

However the vast majority of us just assume or take it in “faith” and trust that when we eat our bodies will be nourished and continue to function or when we get into our cars they will transport us from one place to another. We cannot see our bodies working with the food we eat to keep us alive nor can we see inside an automobile engine and know it is functioning as it should to transport us where we want to go can we? We have faith and trust that all is at it should be in these scenarios.

It is the same with God who we can not see. We have faith and trust that he is there and his word, the Holy Bible, is working to keep our spiritual bodies nourished and that our souls will be transported from this place to another; The Kingdom of God, when our time here on earth is done.