Tag: faith

How To Have Faith in God

How To Have Faith In God

Having faith in God can be a challenging topic to think about because both the idea of ‘faith’ and the idea of ‘God’ are really big ideas. Just to avoid confusion, and to make it easier to talk about, let’s start with some basic definitions that wise people, from a variety of different traditions, agree on as being helpful.

Who is God? 

‘God’, among other things, is the being that represents the highest and best good you can possibly imagine.

In the Old Testament, God is revealed as the creator of all life.

The New Testament defines God in incredibly simple terms when it states that ‘God is love’. This love is seen clearly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as God offering redemption (restoration of relationship with himself) to everyone who wants it.

The Bible, in many other places, talks about God as the being who wants to make whole whatever is broken, the one who has your ultimate best interest at heart.

If you’re used to thinking of God as someone who’s angry and irritated with you the whole time, think again. This is not what is taught in the writings of the Bible or by the spiritual masters who have followed its teachings.

What is faith?

Faith is kind of a crazy idea because it’s so completely counterintuitive. It asks you to believe in the existence of things like goodness, truth and beauty. Faith asks you to have hope, and to believe in the power of love to overcome all the suffering and adversity that life will inevitably throw at you. Faith is the part of us that thinks in terms of possibility, in terms of things becoming better than they are.

Genuine faith is not unrealistic. It acknowledges the impossibility of achieving a perfect life or a perfect world, but it also celebrates the impulse that strives for perfection.

What does the Bible say about faith in God?

The Bible has a lot to say about faith in God. Some of the ideas found in the Bible about faith may be familiar, but others may not.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the big ideas about faith in God that show up in the Bible.

Faith in God is a way of seeing the world

The first thing the Bible says about faith in God is that there are basically two faith options, each of which represents a different worldview.

In I Corinthians, in the New Testament, there’s a verse that draws a distinction between having faith in human wisdom and faith that believes in the power of God.

“So that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (I Cor. 2:5)

The intention behind this idea is not to denigrate the value of human achievement and understanding.

Rather, it highlights the difference between the limited perspective of what humans see and the big picture that God sees.

In a way, it’s also an idea that represents the collision of two different worlds: the world of spiritual reality and the world of physical reality. It’s the difference between that which can be perceived with the five senses, and that which can’t.

The implication in this verse is that choosing the perspective of faith in God is the perspective of limitless possibility.

Faith in God is transformative

Many scientific studies have been done which confirm the power of belief alone to effect change in the physical world. Jesus seemed to agree with this idea when he told his disciples that anyone with enough faith could move mountains, or when he himself healed people.

But faith in the Bible is not just about physical miracles!

In the book of James, the author talks about faith as an agent of character transformation. Not just faith generally, but faith in the midst of life with all its challenges – in spite of its challenges.

James says that having your faith challenged by difficulties in life develops something called perseverance (not giving up). And perseverance, if you hang in there, according to James, can make you mature, complete, not lacking in anything!

According to James, faith has the power to transform you into a person of strength, a person of character.

Faith in God can save you

Who knows exactly all of the different ways we need saving. We certainly need saving from ourselves, at the very least.

Experts in psychology agree that the number of different compulsions, obsessions and addictions to which we are all, in varying degrees, subject, is no small thing.

The Bible talks a lot about the different disintegrative behaviors we can manifest and how those behaviors cause fractures within ourselves, between ourselves and other people, and between us and God.

The Bible uses the word ‘sin’ as a way to describe the sickness and brokenness of all human beings. Our desperate need of salvation and healing.

The antidote to all this disintegration and brokenness? Faith in God through Jesus Christ.

In another place in the New Testament, the author says that ‘It is by grace you have been saved through faith……..this is the gift of God.’

Conclusion

In conclusion, the way to have faith in God is to choose a way of seeing the world.

It’s to choose a path of belief in possibility, not limitation.

Faith is to choose integration, not disintegration.

It is a movement toward wholeness and away from brokenness.

This happens when you choose to place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to reconnect with God.

First steps to have faith in God

1. Make the choice to begin the journey!

2. Read through the Gospel of John in the New Testament. It’s a great place to begin understanding what faith in God is all about!

“I’m angry with God, what do I do?”

What to do when you’re angry with God

Being angry with God is something most Christians experience at some point in their lives. Even though life is an amazing gift, and something to be celebrated, there are seasons of pain, difficulty and disappointment for everyone. For those of us who have placed our trust in God and are on a journey of faith, there is an often unspoken assumption that things will always go well. When an unexpected difficulty arises, it can leave us wondering where God went. Isn’t he supposed to have our back? Did he take the day off?

Anger with God is normal

It’s the rare believer who can say they’ve never been angry with God. As much as we might not like to admit it, most of us have been periodically unhappy with God and the way our lives have gone. If you’re feeling angry with God, you’re not alone.

How do I know if I’m feeling anger towards God

We usually think of anger as one emotion that’s always experienced in the same way. But it might be helpful to think of anger as having a few different faces.

Disappointment with God

The most mild form of anger is disappointment. We usually don’t connect the two because disappointment feels more like sadness, but anger often begins with a sense of betrayal and the disappointment that follows.

Impatience with God

Feeling impatient or cranky is a great clue that lets us know anger is hiding just beneath the surface. When God seems to be ignoring our prayers, or taking too long to answer, we can quickly become impatient and angry with God.

What does the Bible say about anger

One of the most famous Bible verses about anger is Ephesians 4:26, “ Be angry, but do not let your anger lead you into sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” There are a few important things to notice in this verse.

God is ok with your anger

The first thing to notice is that God isn’t upset at you for being angry. Not even for being angry with him. This verse affirms that anger is a normal human response to any perceived injustice. Anger, in and of itself, is not a sin. It’s the way we respond to our anger that really matters, what we say or do as a result of our anger.

Being angry with God is a process

The second part of Ephesians 4:26 is a beautiful metaphor for the idea that emotions should not be suppressed. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have self-control in the way we express emotion, just that we shouldn’t ignore it. ‘Don’t let the sun go down on your anger’, let’s us know that it’s good and healthy to take the time to face our anger and process it, but also that the process shouldn’t go on indefinitely.

How to process anger

Processing anger in a healthy way can be a tricky thing to figure out. Venting our anger with no restraint can make life miserable for everyone around us. While suppressing anger can be damaging in other ways. Most experts agree that being able to articulate what we’re angry about, whether verbally or in writing, is an effective way to move through the process of being angry, towards a place of greater acceptance and peace.

Gratitude as an antidote to anger with God

Anger is an incredibly powerful emotion because it’s so strongly tied to a perceived sense of injustice. The intensity of this emotion can quickly lead to an obsession with the unfairness of the difficulty we’re experiencing. Left unchecked, it can take over our thoughts and color our entire life experience in a negative light. One practice that really helps to keep our anger in perspective is the practice of gratitude. Daily verbalizing or writing down the things we’re grateful for, while also acknowledging the things we’re angry about, helps us remember that along with the bad, there is also good.

Anger with God as an agent of transformation

Even though anger towards God is a natural human response for believers who are suffering, the journey of faith asks us to eventually move through our anger and arrive again at a place of acceptance and trust. It’s completely normal to feel disappointment and even anger at God when difficulty and suffering come our way, but what is offered us through the suffering is the possibility of a transformative process that leads us even closer to God.

The book of James, in the new testament, expresses this beautifully. “Consider it pure joy….,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”