I have been a Christian for many
years, my daily studying and reading of the Bible was when I found time.
Between religiously watching television my prayer life consisted of the prayer
line at 6 am daily and my own personal prayer at night before bed (most nights
I fell asleep without finishing). So
even though I faltered on those spiritual life sustaining activities, I
believed my faith in Christ was strong.
For the scripture in Hebrew 11: 1 states, “Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” So according to this
scripture surely I had deep rooted faith because I had a deep hope in God,
Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and a deep belief in Word, despite ever seeing Him.
Or did I?
For months my faith was shrinking,
to the point that I even considered leaving church and God, behind
forever. So I began seeking the word
that I would increase in faith. I would read every scripture that contained the
word faith. I read Hebrews 11:1
continuously. Surely somewhere in one of those scriptures pertaining to “faith”
would be a boost, a refill, something that would increase my faith. But no amount of reading, made a
difference. I felt there was no need to
increase my personal time with Christ, or reading, studying, or prayer time. I
felt as though I was missing the premise of Christianity and without it, those
spiritual life sustaining activities, would be in vain.
So I began looking for the reasons
for why I was struggling in my faith. For months I could find no
answers, until one day I was reading BibleStudyTools.com, a daily
devotional that I receive everyday was about faith. In the devotional
the author stated, “Contrary to popular opinion…, Faith is not belief
without proof or belief despite evidence. This definition reduces faith
to mere fideism…, …and that skeptics …and Christians should reject it,
too. …rather faith is a complete trust or confidence in someone or
something.” Let’s just say that that blew me away. It left me a
little baffled and confused. Could it be that what I thought was faith
and the faith I needed was just pure fideism. I had some studying to do, to say
the least.
So I began studying the word fideism
and it is defined as “the doctrine that knowledge depends on faith a
revelation. My faith was not independent of reason. Then I
began to study the word Faith, as it is meant in Hebrews 11:1. In the
Greek it is translated as Pistis, which means, “God’s divine persuasion; a
conviction of the truth of anything (a) relating to God, (b) relating to
Christ, (c) religious beliefs of Christians, (d) belief with a predominate idea
of trust (or confidence) whether in God or Christ…” The reason I lacked in
faith almost to point of no faith was due to my minimal understanding and
trust in God's word. I realize reading the scriptures without
revelation would not increase my faith. I needed Faith (Pistis) , the
divine persuasion by God, a conviction of truth of anything as it relates to
God, as it is defined in the Greek, which is only gained through a
personal relationship with Christ, and the only way to have one is to study the
Bible and pray consistently and commune with God himself.
The truth of the matter is this, my
personal relationship with Christ, studying and reading the Word, my personal
prayer time was not a constant activity in my life, I didn’t know God and it is
impossible to have total complete Faith in someone that you do not know. So I
began to increase my prayer time, my studying and reading time and my personal
time with God. I also began using the
Greek meaning of faith as it is defined in Hebrews 11:1 and read it like this:
Now FAITH (the divine persuasion of God,
the conviction of truth relating to God, Christ, religious belief of
Christians, and a belief with a predominate idea of trust (or confidence) in God
or Christ) is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things
not seen. For those of you who may be
going through a season of little faith begin to read that scripture as stated
above and you may be able to understand why your “Faith” is so little.
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