Thursday, 06 August 2009
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What is the Difference Between Belief and Faith?
It is interesting to note that in Webster’s Dictionary, the first definition of Belief is not to believe in something, but “a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.”A Bible Dictionary gives the following definition of Faith: “Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11: 1), and must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation. To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith (Rom. 10: 14-17). Miracles do not produce faith but … miracles often confirm one’s faith. Although faith is a gift, it must be cultured and sought after until it grows from a tiny seed to a great tree.”
Belief and Faith are related, but true Faith is centered in trust and confidence in Jesus Christ.
Many scriptures speak of the effects of Faith in our lives, and a few speak of Great Faith:
- Matt. 8: 10 - When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
- Matt. 15: 28 - Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
- Acts 6: 8 - And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
- 2 Thes. 1 - We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly…
Apparently then, Faith is not an on/off switch, but something that can grow and even become “great.” However, as one speaker said, “…great faith has a short shelf life.”
We all have busy lives and many demands on our time, but each of us must seek to have a growing Faith in Jesus Christ. One of my greatest joys has been seeing Faith in the Lord develop in my children, and now my grandchildren.
How have you progressed from Belief to Faith, and have there been times in your life when you have been blessed with Great Faith?
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- From: lomal@xanga
- Name: Michael
- Location: Houston, Texas, United States
- About Me: As a child, prayer led me to know a loving Heavenly Father. As a teenager, reading the Bible cover to cover taught me to recognize the witness of the Holy Spirit and to hear the voice of Jesus. He has forgiven my sins and taken away my fear. I have been an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1971.
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Comments (20)
I think belief can be a synonym for faith in some instances and in others, be distinct from each other. For example, in one case someone could say - "I believe, or have faith, that one day I'm going to get married. In a different case one could say - "I believe that right now I am breathing." In the first example, belief and faith are synonymous. In the second one, it requires no faith. It's tangible.
Biblically I think they're synonymous for us today because we do not see Jesus here in the flesh on earth. For those that lived with Jesus and saw him though, they didn't need faith to know that he existed. They believed it because they were with him. But in other areas, they still required faith.
You said - "Belief and Faith are related, but true Faith is centered in trust and confidence in Jesus Christ."
Why wouldn't you also say that true belief in God is also centered in trust and confidence in Jesus Christ?
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Faith is not knowing.
Faith is not understanding either.
Faith is not even having the understanding that you are on the right path.
Learning to really believe, learning to really have faith is to understand that you don't understand everything; that everything can not be perceived
and that the only way to understand life is by asking questions instead of finding answers.
Because sometimes, even the answers you hear won't be enough.
In short, it could be said that "belief" is just the chosen perception of how to view the world, etc.
But faith is that trust that allows us to walk confidently even when we have no other assurances.
That's a rough (and maybe inaccurate) description in layman's terms. But I think it may suffice for now.
@chilled_roses8523@xanga - The purpose of asking a question is to find answers. With answers comes understanding. You ask a question because you don't yet understand. We won't always get the answers we might hope for, but there will be an answer of some kind. There are times God won't answer us...but that's only because He wants us to keep asking, to keep drawing us closer to Him. I suppose in that case that's the only case where understanding comes when merely asking questions. But it's more of a realization of why God has not answered our questions, not that understanding has come because a question was merely asked by itself.
To understand requires that certain info be given and received properly. Otherwise, why would Jesus, on so many occasions, say, "Let him who has ears to hear understand"? It's because Jesus, in each instance, had just imparted some kind of lesson. Info was given that could be processed...often as a result of a question being asked. Now true, the disciples didn't always understand at first, but they did eventually figure out what He meant.
In the Scriptures, the words 'faith' & 'belief' are not really distinguished from each other (the same Greek word is translated into the English with the words 'faith' & 'belief'). The familiar Eph.2:8 says we are saved by grace thru 'faith', but in Acts16:31, the Philippian jailor is instructed to "Believe in the Lord Jesus, & you will be saved...." I understand the point that the author is making about faith moving one on toward maturity in one's relationship with Christ, but I'm not so sure that it is an entirely accurate approach. The words 'faith, belief, trust and confidence' may convey various nuances of the language, but in the Greek, the distinctions tend to be 'blurred' LAW--
faith is belief even when things go against it
@testubebaby@xanga - That is a good perspective of Faith.
Belief is just that what you believe.
But Faith is that which you still believe even when all else points to your belief being wrong.
Blind Faith is a faith from which you have just accepted someone else's assertion of what you should believe.
There is a liberation in Blind Faith. But it is a hollow liberty. The strongest Faiths are those that have been gained from true testing of the belief and experiencing the teachings of your belief.
Thank you for the article. I've been struggling with knowing what faith looks like. I know I need to have faith, but I somehow thought that in order to have it, I needed to be completely sure and unafraid. I was praying about it one day when God gave me this picture. Faith is like jumping out of a building into His arms. I KNOW that He will catch me...and I jump...but I'm screaming the whole way down.
Dennis_Girl14@xanga Good--'screaming the whole way down....'My young son asked me what faith was,so I lifted him up on top of the refrig.& then asked him to 'jump'--guess what,he did!! I said; "Craig,that's what faith is" He's never forgotten! LAW--
Sweet peeples of the world, faith is how we see and understand God.
For just as with reason we unravel the mysteries of our the universe, with faith we unravel the Mystery of God.
Because we are designed by our Creator to know, love and serve him we are given the faculty of faith so that we may fulfill our design and purpose.
there's no difference to me. but i tend to say that i believe things which i cannot prove, and know things which i can. not everyone makes that distinction, i guess.
this was a good read. good distinction between the two; i had interpreted the difference to mean that faith is specifically confidence in a person whereas belief is broader and may be a trust in an idea or concept.
"Belief" has a verb associated with it, therefore connotes action. "Faith" is a noun with no associated verb. Belief, therefore, indicates something you do, while faith is something you have.
Christians need both.
I find it interesting to read on Xanga why some people think there is no God, but I actually don't care as much to read about proofs that people have come up with to prove there IS one. It's not that I don't want any justification for my faith, but really, what more do we need other than the Bible? Some Christians don't seem to realize that if we could 100% prove without a doubt that there is a God, then there would be no purpose for faith.
i have faith in God and i trust that he will be there when things go wrong and belief is what my heart
chooses to do.. i will keep on believing that there is a great world out there. no matter what anyone else
says
@chilled_roses8523@xanga - I ask questions in an effort to find answers, not just so that I can ask questions.
@sarahzthoughts@xanga - Some Christians don't seem to realize that if we could 100% prove without a doubt that there is a God, then there would be no purpose for faith.
The individual must be 100% sure that God exists or faith will go nowhere. Without 100% understanding that God exists all you have is a superstition.
The purpose of faith has nothing to do with whether or not we accept the existence of God. To accept the existence of God all you need is a human brain. We need faith for much, much more. The Bible tells of people who had faith. And every single one of them had already accepted the existence of God.
God can't show us his glory if we do not have faith. Unless we are 100% sure that God exists faith has nothing to work with.
Spurgeon said this from "By Grace Through Faith": "Never make a "christ" out of your faith, nor think of it as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in looking unto Jesus not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us, yet the power is not in the faith but in the God upon whom faith relies. The peace within the soul is not derived from the contemplation of our own faith but is comes to us from Him who is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith touches and virtue comes out of Him into our soul." Blessings and love,