What about a having a faith?
What about “having a faith”?
As christian believers we say, we believe, or we say that “we have a faith”. However, believing and “having a faith” are not the same thing at all. Believing is simply an attitude of the heart. Everyone has it. Believing is not something that we can say: “this is what makes me different” or “this is what you an un-believer need most“. For example, I believe that my wages will come into my account as much as a homeless person on the street believes that he will get some coins today. We were all actually born to believe, it´s part of our nature. That´s the destiny for all human beings. Just the same as we are able to love and hate, we all are also able to believe.
So what's the difference between ''I believe'' and ''I have faith?'' When we look closely, we will see that our believing is basically about expectation. We believe for what we hope for and we expect for what we believe. But this attitude can sometimes be quite dangerous. Why? Because we can very easily slide to a place where we expect what we want instead of what God wants and then our expectation becomes selfishness.
Our ancestor Eve gives us a nice example. God gave a simple command: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die.“ However, Eve got another message from a different direction which said:“Surely you will not die but your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.“ Eve let her heart believe by seeing and feeling without really considering what she had heard. She is an example when believing can become a personal selfish expectation. She expected open eyes, wisdom and she got it. But the result of her action was not glory but shame.
She is also the first example where we can see that God or anyone else is not responsible for what we believe. It is our choice, which is given from eternity. A “choice“ as S. Kiekerggard wrote, “ It is a good thing that you can never be rid of it. It remains in you, and if you do not use it, it becomes a curse.“ It is ''the Choice'' between believing God and believing the world. The choice which is relying on our personal decision.
Believing is actually a most terrible weaknesses of our heart. Why? Because at its basis it means that we are able to believe without considering the consequences. We are able to believe even if the object of our believing is the truth or not. We can walk this way and never meet faith in Jesus. We can float on this river full of emotions, our own satisfactions, feeling good and personally successful, but if we want to talk about a faith, we need to look deeper.
So what about a faith? What is faith? I say, that I can believe without faith but I can´t have faith without my believing. Scripture says in Rom 10,17: “ faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ'' The Word of God is coming from eternity with one single purpose. To disturb our attention which is usually directly focused on the values of this world. When we hear God's word, we choose to make the decision to believe it, then faith coming from eternity, is actually born in our heart and becomes “our faith“. And this faith contains only one single name. That is Jesus. Then we realise that faith is not just about believing, faith is more about knowing. It is not just about believing in the truth it is more about to knowing the truth. Knowing the Author and Finisher our faith - Jesus. Then we find that faith is more about relationship and about giving ourselves than about looking for own satisfaction. We find that faith means staying faithful even if we don´t know where we are going. We find that this faith gives us the answer that God truly exists, and doubts about His existence never can disturb us again. Why? Because if we meet faith in Jesus Christ, we hear the voice of eternity and whoever hears this voice, can never be same.
But what about the question of those who have “fallen away from faith?“ Scripture says:“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow decieving spirits and things taught by demons.“ The question is: ''why did they abandon the faith?“ Is it not enough that I´m saved? That I have found living God? Do I or did I expect more? That is it exactly! I expected something more, something sweet, comfy, fruity, juicy. Something that I liked to hear, that sounds good and makes me feel good. Something that is talking about my own satisfaction. What foolishness and meaningless!
Yes, that is certainly the truth, that to have a faith in Jesus is more about sacrifice, but also about resurrection. It means every single day to struggle but also to know for what you struggle. The question is not ''Why did they abandon the faith?“ The right question is: ''Did they know the Author of the faith'' Did they ask themselves: “Who really is Jesus for them?“ Because if they don´t know, why should they keep the faith, if they would not be able to answer the simple question:“Who is Jesus, author and finisher of this faith for me?“
To have a faith is all about keeping faith! As Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith will not perish, or as Paul could stand and say:''I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith.'' May this be the same with us. May God Almighty give us strength to walk in this Way until we will hear the voice of eternity singing: “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps – Faith.“ (Is 26.6)
