August 12th, 2010

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Why is faith good?

Over the past week, this question has been popping up everywhere I turn. Recently, it has been made popular by a documentary from an atheist viewpoint, and the documentary interviews many religious people with this question.

Let’s define faith. According to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So to a Christian, faith looks forward to being sure of eternity in heaven with Jesus, and certain of the return of Jesus to this earth in the near future. Also, since we live almost 2,000 years after the life of Jesus, faith looks back at Jesus in certainty that He was God in the flesh, and that He died and rose from the dead to enable a relationship between man and God.

Generically, faith is used by every person every single day. There are so many things we place our faith in. I wake up every morning and have faith that the electricity in my house works. I have no idea how electricity works, but I use it in my everyday life. Recently, we had a major power failure in our town and thousands of people were without electricity for over four hours in the Texas heat. Everyone faith in the certainty of electricity was quickly shaken. Before 9/11/01, the government had faith in the goodness of people, we couldn’t see the intentions of people, but trusted them to be good. In one quick morning, that faith was taken away by terrorists, and everyone has seen the results in the airports since that fateful day. I love to rock-climb. Every time I attach a rope to my harness, I have faith that the rope and harness are going to hold me. I have to have faith in the people who tested them, and faith in my knot-tying ability.

So, in a generic sense, faith is used everyday. Why is faith good? Without this generic faith, we would not be able to function in life. We would be scared about everything, and the natural routines of life would be so laborious, we would be unable to live.

Faith in God simply takes faith to a whole new level. We can trust God. God has a plan. God holds the beginning of my life and the end of my life in His hands. My life is not about me, but about trusting in God who holds all things together. Why is faith good? It allows us to be confident, when the circumstances of this world would strip us of earthly confidence. It allows our lives to have meaning and hope. It allows us to see beyond the vision of our narrow little self-universe, and glimpse matters that are much more important: like striving after the holiness of God; like loving my neighbor as myself; etc…

Furthermore, faith in God taps us into God’s power, and allows us to live in His strength and not our own. Hebrews 11 is a list of biblical figures who lived by faith. Through God’s power, they conquered enemies, hatred, obstacles, self-doubt, diseases, death, and changed the face of the world in the process.

Is faith good? It certainly is! May the Lord increase our faith in the days to come. The following the the remainder of Hebrews 11 from the New International Version of the Bible:

3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
 5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
 7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
 8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
 11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
 13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
 17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
 20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
 21By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
 22By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
 23By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
 24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
 29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
 31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
 32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
 39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.