What is Faith For?

From 1989 to 1993, I served as a volunteer hospice chaplain in Florida. I did it, in part,  for my own education. I wanted to know what happens to people while they are dying.  Do people turn to God in their dying process?  Do they become depressed and discouraged, or do they find new hope.

I discovered some surprises.  People behave different ways.  Some people turn to God, others do not.  Sometimes the people who have been most religious in life have the hardest time dying,  and some people who have had no faith in God face it with relative ease.  Clearly there is a difference between having faith and having religion.  Many who claim to live by faith do not. Many who think the have no faith do.

To answer why this can be, we have to look a little bit deeper at the question of faith--not what faith is but what faith does in inside of us. What role does faith play in our ordinary lives?  . 
 Imagine a triangle composed of three parts—body, mind, and spirit.  The body is our physical side--our needs, appetites, and desires associated with the body.  It is how we connect to the physical world.  The mind is our non-physical side. It is how we connect with the world of other people—our social and psychological self--our moods, lusts, ambitions, and insecurities.  The spirit is our faith side. It is the values, beliefs, loves, and desires for something outside ourselves that is not physical pleasure of social position.  It is how we connect with the Holy Spirit.  Tillich called it the Ultimate.   Faith is what causes us to make the value decisions of life. ·     
 Suppose you have a serious medical condition and you must endure a great deal of pain and suffering to get better. You might not get better at all. .  But why should you endure? Why try to stay alive?
 Suppose you and your wife are having marital problems.  You think about leaving, and so does she. But you don’t leave.  You stay and work out your problems.  Why?
·Suppose you feel a call to the mission field.  You are called to leave our work, your home, and family and go to the other side of the world.  Why should you go?   These are faith decisions.  They have to do with what we think is ultimately important.
Our faith is our reason to live. Our faith is our reason to die. Our faith is why we persevere in the face of trouble. It is also why we surrender our will to the will of God. It is how we answer the ultimate questions of life---who am i?  Why am I here?  Why should I go on?

Not everyone  has a solid foundation on which to make life decisions. Many people do not know why they are here, or what they are living for. They just stumble through life from one accident to another.  Oh, they may have beliefs, but they don’t trust They believe in God, they have just never learned to trust God.  Paul said

 Just because you have belief in God, doesn’t mean you are living by faith.  Your beliefs and faith don’t necessarily connect. 

A person can have faith in something without belief. There are many people who are Star Wars of Star Trek fanatics, who organize their lives around conventions celebrating made-up stories, who try to copy the morals and ethics of these imaginary worlds,  yet do not believe they are true.

A person can have belief without faith. We can believe in bigfoot or Roswell aliens, without having any effect on how we live our lives.

But Christianity requires faith as well as belief. Our true faith is what we build out life upon, not what we say to be true. 

Is Christ the basis for your life?  Or is He a mere belief?

 In times of trouble, many people find that their faith is not strong enough to hold them.  Faith that is not developed and exercised cannot prepare us for the tough questions of  life. 
These people are afflicted with one of three faith diseases—
They have a misplaced faith.  Misplaced faith is when we think we believe in one thing but actually have faith in something else.  We think we have faith in God, but our lives are actually about having faith in ourselves. 
The human heart is deceptive.  We may say we live for the God’s glory. but actually live for something else. 
For such a person, the greatest gift God can give them is disillusionment. When we come to understand that we cannot trust anyone, not even ourselves, then we may be on our way to trusting the Lord. 
They have a mixed faith.  They have faith in God part of the time, but it is so combined with other things that it is not solid.  It is a foundation of iron and clay,  unstable at its base.    
Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”
The person with mixed faith trusts God in some things. He may trust God to get to heaven, but he dare not trust God to put food on the table, so he feels he has to steal to do it.  He may trust God on Sunday, but he cannot trust God to satisfy his needs for enjoyment and satisfaction in life. For that reason, he turns to sex or alcohol.  We can trust God for our eternal future, but cannot trust God for our retirement, so we hoard as much money and goods as we can. 
If we are to trust God, we have to do it all the way.
They have a mini-faith. Their understanding of faith is just too small and too poorly developed to withstand the troubles of the day.  Child-like faith is not the same as childish faith. Faith must grow in complexity and understanding beyond childhood if we are to meet the needs of the adult world. 
Many Christians have a “bumper-sticker” faith.  We know the slogans--
“Jesus saves.”  Saves from what?  Does it just mean hell, or does it mean something else?.
“Let Go and Let God.”  Sounds great. But how do I do that?  How can I let go, when my thoughts are in such turmoil.  If I still feel worried does that mean I am not letting go?
“Prayer changes things.”  Prayer changes things, but sometimes things get worse after I pray.  How do I cope with unanswered prayer?
“What would Jesus do?” Well—what would Jesus do?
These slogans are not really answers.  They are just starting points for deeper study.. 
If our faith is to really have an impact on life, then we cannot just push the same old platitudes. We must dig deeper and not stop until we get them. This is not easy. It requires work, effort, and study. But it can be done. 
Jesus told us about two houses, one  build on the rock, and the other on sand. An adequately prepared faith is the rock of our lives.  An inadequately prepared rock is the sand.  If we build our faith on the rock, it will last. 
If not, it will fall.  Faith is like that. Real faith in Jesus will hold us up in anything.  Misplaced faith, mixed faith, or mini-faith is like sandy soil under a big house. It is just not adequate for the job.