by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Faith has different focuses. It can mean the belief in a fact. It can mean the trust of such facts. Concerning people, it involves trust in character. Of course, it is easier to learn facts and thus believe they are true than to learn to trust someone’s character. The foundation of our relationship with God is based upon such trust.<\/p>\n
We, of course, begin with facts. All evidence for the existence of God comes from reasoning from facts. The existence of the universe, the existence of life, etc., are the facts or data that we begin with. In coming to an understanding of why and how such facts exist, we reason to the existence of God.<\/p>\n
The Bible teaches that “whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and <\/b>that He rewards those who seek Him<\/em>” (Hebrews 11:6). Belief in His existence is warranted by the data we have. The trust in His character (that He rewards those who seek Him) is more difficult for most people. It is this trust in God’s character that separates the ‘belief of demons’ (James 2:19) and the faith of such people of God in Hebrews 11.<\/p>\n This trust can be built on several different foundations. Testimony and examples of those who have experienced God provide one such foundation. Many of the stories in the Bible involve people learning to trust the promises God made to them. Some failed in their faith, but many learned through life’s difficulties that God is faithful to His promises. (Read Hebrews chapter 11 for a short synopsis of such people of faith.)<\/p>\n Reading about other people’s struggles with God is instructive, but it must yet become personal. I will have to deal with both the joys of life and the tribulations that\u00a0come\u00a0my\u00a0<\/strong>way. I will have times (many of them) when I don’t understand. I will cry out ‘why<\/strong>‘ only to be met with silence. I have God’s instructions on what I am to be doing – it is my trust in God that will keep me doing when I don’t understand why.<\/p>\n Probably the biggest danger I have seen is when people hold a mistaken view of what God has promised them. Such mistaken concepts cause people to give up on God when things don’t work out the way that they <\/b>think they should. They begin accusing God of being unfaithful when in fact God never promised such.<\/p>\n We must fill our minds with the history of God’s faithful dealings with His people. We then must each day walk by faith: learn what God wants us to do and then obey to the best of our ability. Faith will grow as we continue to walk with God.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Faith has different focuses. It can mean the belief in a fact. It can mean the trust of such facts. Concerning people, it involves trust in character. Of course, it is easier to learn facts and thus believe they are true than to learn to trust someone’s character. The foundation of our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,129],"class_list":["post-95776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-trust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-i-say-you-cant-prove-god-is-real\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":0},"title":"What if I say you can’t prove God is real?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If religion (Catholicism) is the absolute truth, then how come when questions are asked about it no one can ever answer with facts, only faith and belief? Basically, if I say \"you can't prove God is real\", you can only prove it with faith and belief, no facts. Why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/genuine-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":1},"title":"Genuine Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant The topic of \"faith\" is often discussed and often misunderstood. Skeptics accuse Christians of having \"blind faith,\" or taking a \"leap of faith,\" meaning that there is no basis for what we believe. Thus our faith in God's existence is no different than what I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20736,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/constantine-created-the-king-james-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":2},"title":"Constantine created the King James Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Left unedited. I read \"The Origin of the King James Version\" and find it very interesting but you never say anything about the actual origin of the King James Bible. In short, this version was created by Emperor Constantine in the year 325AD. At this time, he was losing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-confidence-do-i-need-in-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":3},"title":"How much confidence do I need in God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton I have another question I'd like to ask concerning some scripture I've been recently pondering and trying to understand. \"But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/joseph-smith-or-jesus-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":4},"title":"Joseph Smith or Jesus Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gilbert Alexander God has spoken to us in these last days by His Son, whose name is Jesus or Immanuel (Matthew 1:21,23; Hebrews 1:1-4). His message is the New Testament, the gospel of Christ, the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Hebrews 8:6; Mark 16:15-16; Romans 10:16;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50661,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-give-more-details-on-hebrews-116\/","url_meta":{"origin":95776,"position":5},"title":"Can you give more details on Hebrews 11:6?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you please go into more detail about Hebrews 11:6? What does it mean that those who have faith believe that God rewards those who seek Him? Answer: \"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}