Friday, February 4, 2011

Faith

  Faith is a very strong word and an important word, for if we had no faith in something or someone, we would wither and eventually die. Think about that for a moment. We live our lives by faith, but do we instill faith in the proper means and to the most important aspects of our life? As a matter of fact, if you are alive and reading this I guarantee you have some faith. 

   I had a guy one time ask me how I can have faith in an invisible God. He followed up by saying he had faith in nothing he could not touch, feel, taste, or see. He followed up with something about not giving hi the wind or gravity as an example. So I thought about it and there are so many examples of how we have faith. The one I came up with was brakes on a vehicle. Some people have plenty of faith, so much so it becomes scary at times. Most have no clue how the brakes work, but they have faith that when they depress that pedal they will work. For those of us that do know how the brakes work we have never seen friction, yet we have faith it is there and it works. Even if we know all the aspects of the mechanical part we still have faith that when we drive and want to slow down or stop, we blindly press the brake pedal having faith all thing will work properly. There are those who have abundant faith in this action, so much so it gives some the faith in God because they worry about the car approaching stopping in time.

 I seriously doubt that many people have seen the electricity in a power line or their home yet we leave our food in a device that requires us to have faith that the electricity will feed the machine, then we have faith the machine will work. Those reading this have faith that their components will work properly and that the electricity, be it battery or plugged into an outlet, will be present. True, if it's a battery it will run down but then we have faith that the battery will recharge.

  Now that is just two of thousands upon thousands of examples. There is nothing wrong with faith in things like that for faith is needed. Blind faith is not that hard to come by and used daily by everyone. But there are misuses of faith, false faith, and ignorant faith. Satan uses faith as his weapon for as long as he has been corrupted. Even he has faith that God the Father is God and that Jesus is the Savior of mankind, Messiah. So placing or having faith in something isn't special for we all do just that.

 Misguided faith can bring about Pride. Pride in oneself, pride in one's accomplishments, pride in a deed. Pride is indeed like faith, used properly it can be a good thing, but used wrong it can turn the soul sour. Pride is mentioned 46 times in the Bible and when attributed to a man or woman having pride in themselves is never good. It's ok to be proud of somebody but never one's self. Pride in one's self or one's deeds is never a good thing. Pride is one of the biggest tools the Devil has, and he is very experienced with it. Pride will lead to hate, boastfulness, arrogance, ignorance, lust, envy, and greed. Pride is faith misplaced. Pride has fallen many a person, but that is another article later on.

  Faith is so important that it is mentioned 231 times in the Bible while mentioned, while Faithfulness is 19 and Faithful 78 times.(KJV). In James 2 a description of how misplaced faith can cause harm not only to those you love but to your soul and endangering it of Hell. In Revelations 2 we see that faith cannot and will not always heal you or keep you physically alive, oh but after that last breathe you will live. More than this life, for this life is not what we were created for. This life is not our reward, least the true reward of life after is lost.

  So when we plant a garden, work on a car, go to work, do not have faith in you or anybody else or anything else. Rather have faith in God that all things will work through you from Him. For He is just and powerful, never changing and always the same. Science changes it's mind everyday, businesses fail sometimes, people fail sometimes, you fail sometimes, I fail sometimes... but God never fails. And when you fall He says if you ask, He will lift you back up. As long as you have faith. And one day when that last breath comes, in the final struggle for life, have faith that He will be there, waiting for a reward that never tarnishes, never rots, never rusts, and never wears out, for all eternity. That is faith, properly placed, can and will do. Now that we know how we all have faith in something and use it everyday, why not use it for everything... God.      


     

No comments:

Post a Comment