Cultivate Faith
- heartsinger1
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Has your faith journey ever led you in to the dark?
Into a seeming dead-end trail?
To the bottom of a cliff with no way up?
Or to the depths where there is no familiar light?
I have. The results left me feeling hurt, hopeless, and holding on to hollow faith.
Faith...a hard word to define. Is it a noun? Or a verb?
From my experience it's both.
First the etymology (word origin) from Dictionary.com
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English feith, from Anglo-French fed, Old French feid, feit, from Latin fidem, accusative of fidēs “trust,” derivative of fīdere “to trust”; confide
Trust is the foundation of faith - that is a fact. But I think there is a difference. I feel faith is firmer than trust.
The biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Assurance...conviction...these have more weight than trust. Trust is part of the equation for sure, however, this verse seems to define faith as blind.
The Greek word translated as 'faith' in the whole New Testament is pistis - #4102 in the Strong's Greek Concordance. Besides faith it is also translated as: faithfulness, pledge and proof. It is a derivitave of peitho #3982, a prime verb - to persuade, to have confidence.
Here is a clue that true faith is more than a feeling or state of being - action is attached to it.
Probably the most quoted verse from the Old Testament for faith is Habakkuk 2:4
Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.
The Hebrew word translated as faith in this passage is emunah, #530 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance. It is translated as faith, faithful, faithfully, faithfulness, honestly, responsibility, stability, steady, trust and truth. Emunah is a derivitive of aman, #539. A prime root; to confirm, support.
This verse is quoted twice in the New Testament: Romans 1:17 and Hebrews 10:38, however the book of James is where the rubber meets the road, when it comes to viewing faith as action rather than just a state of being.
James 2:14-17, 26
What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James clearly shows that having faith taht God is true is not the be all and the end all. Even Satan believes that. He also echos 1 Corithians 13 where it states that if you have faith to move a mountain but have no love your faith is nothing. And of course it lines up with the Faith Chapter - Hebrews 11. No one on the list sat around meditating all day on faith - unless God specifically asked them to wait - which also takes faith - rather they put their feet to their faith. You could even say they 'cultivated' it.
Here are some verses for you to read that show how faith is like a seed and can be cultivated:
Faith is compared to a seed (Matthew 17:20)
Faith is measurable (none - Mark 4:40, little - Luke 12:28, great - Luke 7:9)
Faith can grow (Luke 17:5)
Faith can be strengthened (Acts 16:5)
Faith has been allotted in measures (Romans 12:3)
Faith can grow (2 Corinthians 10:15)
Faith can be established into stability (Colossians 2:5)
Faith builds us up (Jude 1:20)
But maybe the most important fact about faith is that it pleases God (Hebrews 11:6)
The next time you're looking into a dark cave, and you know this is the path God is leading you, to I pray you take that first step believing He is good, He loves you, His plans for you are for your good, and He will never leave or forsake you.
I leave you with a poem:
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