Faith

What do you think of when you hear that word, faith? What image does it conjure up in your mind?
If I am honest to me it sounds like a vain hope, something you cannot be sure of, something you do with your fingers crossed, or perhaps a shop where you buy shoes or even a piece of music by George Michael. I think it is safe to say though that this word is misunderstood, I want to peel back the misconception of this word and see what it really means. The wikepedia definition is as follows;

"Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Confidence, trust and belief"

The definition sounds quite different to how we would normally associate the word. There is also a misunderstanding that faith is blind and that faith is only reserved for the religious bunch and people who are illogical. However we all use faith every day of our lives, I am sat in a chair that I am putting my faith in, I am trusting that it will hold me up, this is based on experience of sitting in this chair, evidence that chairs are made to hold people of my weight (or maybe less!!), I lean back and sit in it and trust it wont collapse. The same is true when I get in my car, or walk on my legs, or watch television, or....I hope you can see my point, you see you excercise your faith in these things with confidence because you examine the evidence, you remember past experiences, you see other people sit in the chair, you can be sure that it will work, however you can never prove it at some point you need to excercise your faith and sit in that chair.

The other misunderstanding I think is interesting is more directed at Christianity, there is a popular belief that those who don't believe in a God are sure logical people and those that do are irrational and strange. However I challenge you to think that both sets of people are putting their faith in something, the non-believer is saying based on his experience and his evidence he sees no reason to believe there is a God and he puts his faith in that even though he cannot prove it. Respect. The Christian does likewise, he says based on my experience and the evidence I have seen I think there is a God and that God is Jesus Christ, faith, respect.

So really what it comes down to here is weighing up the evidence, your experience and making an informed decision. The sad thing for me and I was as guilty of this as anyone is as a non-believer people often sit back and say there is no God but are not willing to look at the evidence, to seek the truth. For me I was afraid that if there was a God he would want something from me, to be honest I wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do and not be told what to do by what I saw as an dictatorial God. What a mistake I made for years.

Upon investigating the claims of many different relgions and beliefs I have been astounded by what I see as the overwhelming evidence for Jesus, his miracles, his resurrection, his life changing impact to this day. I also now have the amazing honour of 4 years experience of God being tangible in my life and wow! It is so real to me that I have left my job, I have given up wealth, God has changed me in such a dramatic way that I cannot begin to tell you all the things I have seen him do. I have suffered much since being a Christian and so I am not saying this is a life style thing I am saying this is the truth. I guess I am trying to warn the non-believers out there that if you sit in that chair of unbelief you are going to fall, the chair will not stand, I have tried and tested it and come up wanting, please come and have a look at this chair of Christianity, please come and let me explain to you how it was put together, why it will hold you, why millions upon millions have tried and tested it to be true. Just come and look at the chair? drop me a line georgeosborn@avantiministries.com