I grew up with an unbiblical view of faith. I think I just Christianized the words "belief" or "hope." Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. My personal definition would have been more like "Faith is the anticipation of things hoped for, the belief in things not seen," or something like that. In other words, my faith was built on hope. When I would pray, I hoped that God was listening in on my thoughts. I didn't really have any proof or even a Bible verse that said he could hear my inaudible requests, but I trusted that he could. I also had faith that he would answer, though my "yes, no, or maybe" method allowed for chance or happenstance to look a lot like the sovereign will of God. When it came to doctrines, I had "faith" that mine was correct. I never really acknowledged that there were smart people on all sides of every debate. I just held my ground on my own beliefs and defended them against every contrary opinion. The same was true of my biblical interpretations. However I saw the verses were the way they were meant to be seen. I had faith in my own reasoning. What about my feelings? Until I was older, I never took health, hormones, fatigue, or stress into account. It was amazing how a good night's sleep would affect my devotion time and make me feel better about God, the church, and the purpose of my life. Would we feel differently about God and each other if we've had our V8 every morning? What about Spicy V8?
If you look carefully, you'll find that the "faith" I had growing up, is actually only half of the biblical definition. Paul explains in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
In context, you'll see that Paul is not referring to the Scriptures, but to the prophets, who were actually hearing from God and speaking to the people. The faith of these people were based, not on a system of doctrines, but the living and active word of God. Some of these words were written down and God expected those to be followed (the law, the temple rituals). In a family, that could be seen as "the rules of the house" along with the daily, spoken interactions of the family.
God does speak through the Scriptures, but he also speaks to his people day to day (directly or through modern-day prophets). This way, our spiritual lives are always relevant to our times, but truth never shifts with it. The rules of the house remain, but the day to day events are more fluid and relevant. If you read through the examples of faith in Hebrews 11, you will see a group of people that listened to God and obeyed. None of them acted "in faith" without hearing from God first. But in Hebrews 4, we read about Israel, who had been given orders from God to enter the land of Canaan, but did not inherit the promise. The word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. United by faith? So faith is belief coupled with obedience. It is not enough to hear from God. It is not enough to believe. One must act. Remember without faith it is impossible to please God. If you are not hearing from God, how can you have faith? If you are not walking in faith, how can you please God?
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Romans 8:26-27
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
If we are connected and communicating with God's Spirit at all times, I believe that He even interprets our feelings as prayer. I believe He can interpret my body language, my glances, better than any close friend I have... and I have a good number of people that know how to 'read' me.
This verse gave me comfort as I wept while watching the news about Myanmar, thinking of Htet, the little boy I sponsor through World Vision. I just kept saying, "Lord, you know what my heart feels... I don't even know how to put it into words or what to ask for. I just trust that the Holy Spirit will intercede for Htet on my behalf."
For a brief moment, I felt helpless... too far away to help in any significant way, too poor to send money, and so on.
Then I felt God speak to my heart, "You can do the most important thing of all. You can ask people to pray."
I sent out like 400 emails that day to every contact in my address book, family, friends, even work contacts. I didn't care if I thought they believed in God or not, or if they were irritated by my "spam", God asked me to do something... and you know what? It made me feel better. He knew that I needed to feel useful.
not a big fan of spicy V8.
And that is the goal, mine atleast-Knowing what is the difference between my feelings, and the feelings of the Spirit. The Spirit intercedes for us, through the Son, because He knows the Father, He knows what the Father desires. Our purpose is living in sync with God's desires, the Big Picture; not God living to fulfill what WE think life needs.
It's true, what you said about a good night's sleep, or, not dealing with hormones (for a woman, atleast). MY "heart's desires" change like the wind, depending on the day. When are my feelings what they should be, how God feels?
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