Faith is central to the reality of Christian experience. During Church Reformation, Martin Luther drew a line in the sand and said that we are saved by faith. Faith is the key.Like it or not, faith is a common occurrence to daily life. We eat the food in a restaurant prepared by people we never met - by faith. Perhaps it was blind faith, but we trust the public health authority anyway. Here, we exercise 'reasonable' faith, sometimes even 'blind' faith as we eat from illegal street vendors.
Faith is only as valid as the object (the person or thing) in which it is placed. In other words, your faith in any person can be only as valid as he is trustworthy. Intense belief does not create truth. Faith's validity cannot be increased by intensity. Believing does not make a wish true. That's why Christian cancer patients are also not healed, despite their steadfast faith. Nevertheless, Christians understand that their future is in good hands - God's Hands.
Disbelief may cost you to miss the boat, and the consequence will be irrecoverable. For instance, a beggar disbelieves that he is actually the heir to a billion dollar inheritance (an objective truth). He will die starving and poverty stricken. The objective truth remains, but he misses out on its benefits because he fails to claim them in faith. Where can we discover these treasures? In the Bible - God's very own Words.
In the realm of everyday human experience, we tend to treat facts as facts. Few of us have trouble accepting the concept that belief can't create, and disbelief can't destroy, objective facts. When talking about God, many people are strangely naive. They say, "Oh, I don't believe in God, heaven and hell", as though that settles the question - they thought that by disbelieving they have supposedly wiped God out of existence. No, the objective truth lives on in spite of disbelief. [1]
Faith sees the invisible but it does not see the non-existent. As Hebrews 11:1 explains it, 'Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' The eyes of faith see something that is real, although invisible. What blind faith or superstition sees is unreal and non-existent. As we learn to discern between unreality and invisible reality, we discover a world of difference between the two. Everyone believes in something. The object of faith, not the intensity of belief or disbelief, will determine faith's validity. Faith placed in something unreal is only superstition. [2]
Christ is the object of Christian's faith. Your leap of faith will be necessary to believe that Jesus is the only Saviour. Through faith alone you can come to Jesus Christ and invite Him into your lives as Lord and Saviour.
Ref.: [1] "How to Give Away Your Faith" by Paul E. Little, IVP 1966, Chapter 8, p.115. [2] ibid, p.116.
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