Building Our Faith Introduction
Last week we talked about the need to choose a faith, and the reasons to have a faith. This week I’d like us to discuss the purpose of the Faith we’ve chosen and an important benefit of that Faith. But first, there are a couple of things I’d like to clarify.
Clarification
To this point I have been speaking of “faith” in a general sense. But, the kind of faith in the fact that gravity will prevail when I step off a cliff is not what I’ll be talking about. Nor will it be the faith that if I should go without food or drink for a week, my body will die. Each of these statements requires an element of “faith” to indicate my belief in them.
No, when I speak about “faith” from now on, I will be speaking of religious faith. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. are all “faiths” or belief systems. Also, when I use the capitalized “Faith” it will designate the belief system someone has chosen, and the non-capitalized “faith” will indicate the concept.
Another important point is that some faiths are more helpful than others. And, some can actually be harmful. I once heard someone say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe. What matters is that you do believe.” I understand the point they were trying to make but believe it was misguided. That’s because I believe that what you believe (what your chosen Faith is) IS important.
Our Faith not only “represents” us to our Maker and the World. It is also (or at least should be) integral to who and what we are. We cannot separate ourselves from our Faith. Our Faith speak to us and for us. And Faiths that promote hate, bigotry, degradation of others, or encourage encroachment on the rights and liberties of others are in no way helpful. Those Faiths may be strongly held. Their adherents may be zealous in their promulgation and defense. But Faith qualities which do not place us in service to our Maker, our World, and our Fellow Man are not helpful. And, I believe they should be avoided at all cost. [Matthew 24:24]
That’s enough preaching. Let’s get on with our discussion.
The Purpose and Benefit of Faith
As I see it, there is one primary purpose for whichever faith we choose, and one important benefit of our having chosen the one that is right for us.
The purpose of having a strong and vibrant Faith is to allow us to connect and commune with Him Who Made Us, and to discern His Will for us in our daily lives. To know Him, to abide in Him and to have Him abide in us is why we were brought into existence. Our Faith should serve and support this purpose. And, it is to those goals that we should dedicate our lives. [Jeremiah 32:19]
The tangible benefit of our having such a Faith is that not only will it serve to fulfill our true purpose, but it also will help us to withstand the storms that are inevitably going to occur in our lives. And, the great thing is that the purpose and the benefit are mutually sustaining and reinforcing.
Acquiring our Faith
So, how do we acquire such a Faith? [Mark 9:24]
Some faiths are “given to us.” If our parents or other adults significant to us in our youth express a particular Faith, we may well gravitate to that Faith and adopt it as our own. This is the way most of us are introduced to faith. We are trained in a Faith from an early age and adopt much of it out of a process of osmosis … it sinks into our pores. These Faiths are the most common, and the easiest to come by. Unfortunately, they can also be some of the easiest to break and lose.
Some of us discover our Faith on our own. This usually happens after we’ve attained the age of accountability and have begun to think for ourselves. In these instances, we may reject the faith training we’ve had from our elders in favor of another faith that more closely aligns with our own views on society, the universe and the Creator. We may be influenced by someone we desire to emulate and after some examination, decide to adopt or explore more deeply the Faith they are expressing. Here we need to make sure that we’re truly responding to the Faith, and not just to the person espousing the faith. A Faith based on a powerful personality may not ultimately serve us well.
Others of us may have some life-changing event or personal revelation (a moment of epiphany) that leads us to a Faith we had not considered before. Surviving a near-fatal accident or disease or having an intense and deep emotional crisis can sometimes result in a new Faith. These kinds of Faiths can be very intense, but difficult to sustain. And, once the “fire has gone out,” the Faith may also.
And, sadly, sometimes having had a bad or unsatisfactory experience with faith we may decide to drop the idea of faith altogether. The decision to have no faith is just as valid a faith decision as the decision to adopt a faith. The Atheist has a Faith. It’s just that his Faith is in “non-faith” rather than in a “higher power.”
Regardless of how we come to our respective Faiths (the Atheist faith being an exception) it is important that we work continually to enhance that Faith, to help it grow and deepen. As I said at the beginning of Post 18, “A Faith that is not growing will wither and die.”
Growing our Faith
The first thing that we can do to grow and strengthen our Faith is to remember its primary purpose. That is to allow us to commune with and know better our Father and His Will for us. Our Faith is not meant to be some sort of “insurance policy” against Hell. It is not there to assure that we’ll be in God’s good graces and thereby be covered with health, wealth, and comfort.
The sole purpose of our faith is to help us to know God. To know His Will for us. And to help guide us in establishing, maintaining and strengthening our connection with Him. As one of my favorite preachers said one time, “We need to keep the Real Thing, the Real Thing.” Let’s not become confused. Our Faith is not about us. It is about Him, and our becoming closer to Him every day.
All right, we get that we need to keep our Faith properly focused. What are some other things we can do to make sure it doesn’t wither or fade?
Probably the most important action we can take to protect, preserve and strengthen our Faith is to pray. (See Post 15 on the Lord’s Prayer) Prayer is the primary mechanism we have for communicating with God and He with us. Of course, He is already aware of our needs, our trials, and our tribulations. The purpose of prayer is not to “tell” God anything He doesn’t already know. Its purpose is to open us up to being able to “hear” His communication with us. We’ll talk more about prayer in future posts. For now, let’s just accept that prayer is the most important contributor to our Faith and our spiritual life.
Another thing we can do to strengthen and deepen our Faith is to study. And, the first thing we need to study is the Bible. In it is everything we need to know about God, Jesus, Jesus’ message to us, and how we are to respond to that message. (See Posts 12 and 13.) Other materials are widely available, and many of them are truly helpful. Studying our Faith, its history, its core beliefs, and its directions for living can be of tremendous benefit in helping us to understand the Faith we’ve chosen. Knowing and understanding how others of our chosen Faith have dealt with personal, emotional and spiritual crises can be very instructive and uplifting. And knowing how our chosen Faith views and addresses many of the social issues of the day can help guide our own thoughts and reflection. But fundamentally, we should always start and end our studies by returning to the Bible.
Joining with others who share your Faith is also important. John Donne (1572-1631 AD) once said, “No man is an island,” and that is very true. While it is our responsibility to consider all aspects of our Faith and to decide for ourselves how we should respond to that Faith and its requirements of us, sharing ideas, theories and understandings of our Faith with others who share our Faith is tonic for the soul. We innately draw comfort and support from one another. Greater understanding of and ability to hear and respond to God’s Word is a direct result of sharing that Word with others and hearing their views and understandings. A Faith that is shared prospers. A Faith that is kept to oneself may not.
Finally, we need to be open to allowing our Faith to evolve, mature and grow to deeper understandings. I once heard a pastor refer to persons new to Christianity as “baby Christians.” He wasn’t being pejorative when he said this. He was simply saying that when something is new to us we’re like “babies.” We need to grow in our Faith, just as our bodies needed to grow when we were young.
Conclusion (for now)
Faiths need to be exercised in order to grow, just like our bodies. And as we exercise our Faith, we will discover new horizons to that Faith. New understandings will come. And old misunderstandings will fall away. Small, immature beliefs will give way to more thoughtful, deeper convictions. A Faith that is not changing or evolving is a Faith in danger of becoming fossilized and brittle. So, let’s all have the courage to allow our Faith to live, to grow, to change, and to evolve (with the aid of prayer, study and sharing with others). Then we can be confident that we’re doing all that we can to “let the Lord in” to our lives, and to live those lives as He intended that we should. And when we do that, our Faiths will become as a beacon to others, which is what God has intended for us all along.
God’s Blessings be on you All.
Richard
October 26, 2018
Richard, Thank you for another great entry. You have blessed me beyond words. Thank you