Theme: Faith – Faith Matters
Passages: 1 Corinthians 13:13, Genesis 3:1, Psalm 115:1-8, Isaiah 44:9-20
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – I Corinthians 13:13
FAITHING
I find that I think of FAITH as a noun, a thing, a possession. But as I look more carefully, I think FAITH is better understood as a verb, an action, something we do.
I wonder why we don’t talk about “FAITHING” like we do about “loving” (which is also a verb).
Pistis (the greek word for FAITH) means “a belief that leads to action.”
So I guess it is both, a noun and a verb, a belief and an action that are inseparably linked like two wings on a bird – just like faith and hope, as we saw last week.
I think this is what James is talking about when he says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)
My faith, my complete trust and confidence in God, should naturally show up in what I do, in how I live, in how I speak, in how I relate.
When my first son was about 3, we were in his room and he was playing on the top bunk of his bed. My back was turned when I heard him call “Dad!”. I turned around just as he hit my arms (and face and chest). The knucklehead had jumped to me before I was even looking! As I caught my breath and my son the only question in my flustered mind was “Why did you do that?!?”
With a full-faced grin of delight, he looked at me with confusion, as if my question didn’t make any sense to him, as if the answer was obvious; “Because you’re my Daddy! You catch me.”
Complete and total faith in his daddy.
Oh, for that kind of child-like FAITH that so naturally flows out of complete trust and confidence in my Father that I am free to jump into the hurt of the world, to risk my reputation or my pride, to love myself, the people in my world and God – actively and fearlessly.
And as part of this active FAITHING, I pray for and exercise the strength to actively “hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14) like a climber holds fast to the rock, as though my life depends on it.
Father, would you help me to make my faith, my complete and total trust in You, more a verb than a noun, more action borne of trust and love, that then spills out on the world around me.
REFLECTION:
Read James 2:14-26 out loud and, like last week, replace the word “faith” with “complete trust in God”.
Write down some of what you experience.
Are there places where my FAITH needs more action?
In our daily faithing, what does Hebrews 4:14-16 offer us as help and encouragement?
