Faith is a verb. It involves action. In whatever context it is placed, it will always refer to a practice. I have found a helpful description of faith is this:
Whatever that you believe in enough to put into practice.
All of us have faith present in our lives. It may not involve the supernatural, but the principle is the same. You have faith in the strength of a bridge, which results in you crossing it. You have faith that the food you get to eat today is not poisonous, therefore you eat it. You have faith that while you scroll down this page, new content will appear, therefore you keep on reading.
In all of these cases you could end up being disappointed. The bridge may collapse. The food may be out of date and infected. The article could end right now…
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You just put faith into practice. You scrolled down, believing that there was more to this article.
When it comes to belief in God, faith is as simple as trusting the bridge you are walking over. But there are a few enemies that will keep you from engaging with God and practicing your faith:
Control
One of the biggest temptations I have encountered is a desire to control every area of my life. Biblically, we are given authority over everything. But where authority releases, control restricts. I don’t know whether you have ever had a team leader that controlled rather than used authority – if you have, I’m sure it had been one of the more irritating moments in your life. There is no space for faith when we are trying to control. Imagine trying to stop everyone on both sides of the bridge so that you can cross safely without fear of collapse. It is impossible. The moment you have convinced one side to not move forwards, the other side has new arrivals that haven’t heard or considered your request. You will end up running backwards and forwards across a bridge you only intended to cross once – because the aim has become control, not reaching your destination. Faith helps you reach your destination. It helps you chase down your dreams, but you will not be able to control it on the way. Faith will require you to relinquish the fear that makes you want to control your life.
Intellectualism
Don’t get me wrong – our cognitive ability is a large portion of who we are. But if we seek to understand everything before acting upon it, living would be extremely complicated and slow. Imagine analyzing the processes, nutrients, cooking techniques, flavor profiles, cultural contexts and farming practices of every meal you have before eating it. Yes, it is good to be informed. But the reality is, life is not going to stop for you to research each element of your life. Understanding the engineering of the bridge before crossing it could result in you never being on time for anything. Understanding the coding and hardware that enables you to scroll down before doing it is virtually impossible. You would have to scroll anyway to access the necessary information. You have to practice faith – you have to act on the belief that someone knows better – in order to live.
Guilt
Faith is a relationship. A relationship with the creator of whatever you are engaging with. No healthy relationship can continue when guilt is present. There will always be one party who suffers because of it. Guilt causes us to grind to halt in our practice of faith. It turns possibility into regret and hope into fear. The fact is, everyone on earth is guilty of something. That’s why Jesus came to earth and defeated death – so that the fact of our guilt does not keep us from knowing God. It takes faith to push past the guilt and regret in your life. You have to trust and believe that Jesus truly did take away what separates you from God.
I want to encourage to disregard the concept of ‘faith’ as a noun. Faith is all about action. If you want to practically engage with the Creator of every part of your being and life – if you have been tripped up by issues concerning control, intellectualism or guilt – maybe try to change the way you think about faith. Click on the link below to find out more.