What Is Faith and How Do I Get It?

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4: 18


“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6: 25

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4: 18


“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6: 25


And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Matthew 8: 26

In a recent short talk, Roland discusses how the fall from faith led to being increasingly reactive to things. This is how it was for Adam. First the fall from faith, then worry. First the fall from faith, then  increasing responses to external people, situations and things. .

For us, we are inherently prone to be emotional. Adam knew God intimately before the fall from faith. But for us, we are born into the kind of life he fell to. We have never known the pristine faith that Adam enjoyed before he turned his back on it. 

But don't be too hard on ol' Adam. He did not know what he was getting into. A good analogy would be health. When he had lived according to faith it was like when you are healthy and feel good. You don't realize how nice it is until you get sick. Then you think back on how it was to feel good. 

 Many people take their state of health for granted and assume they will always feel good. Soon they eat wrong food and make other lifestyle errors. Finally they lose their health. Just like Adam, when they began began making wrong choices, they did not know what they were getting into. Only after they start to feel lousy do they think back about how good they had it when they felt good.

So it was with Adam.  His faith was like a positive state of healthy being.  But it was untested faith. Then when someone came along with the idea of being great without God, he lent his ear, toyed with the idea, responded to it, and then ate the forbidden junk food. 

God warned Adam about what would happen if he ate the forbidden fruit, just as people undoubtedly warned you about some of the choices you were making. But you didn't listen. Maybe you heard what they said but did not really believe them. 

Perhaps it was the same with ol' Adam. He heard what God said, but he doubted it. 

Getting back to our out of control lives. We did not start out that way. We inherited a condition without faith (and intimate knowledge of God). Therefore we were prone to respond to challenges emotionally, since we did not have faith. We had no choice but to respond when we were teased and challenged. Soon our responses become conditioned, then we become obedient to the source of the challenges. 

We had no choice about the life we inherited, nor did we have a choice about the conditions we were born into. But later in life, when we are grown up, when have made mistakes just like our parents did, when we have been led astray, and finally when our choiceless choices have led us into problems and issues, we will be forced to see where all those smiling leaders, motivators, helpers and lovers have led us. 

We will also have the opportunity see how our ego stubbornness and resentments have compounded our issues.  At this point we may begin to question the way we have been going, the things we have believed, and our prideful attitude. Yearning for what is right, our yearning will be met by light so that we may see our errors, and in the light, repent of them. 

This will be the beginning of salvation for those blessed ones who question the way they have been going and have a change of heart about the resentful ambitious path they have been on. 

For us, salvation from our servitude to people and conditions around us begins when we respond to what we know in our heart. Then we begin to grow in faith. First just a little faith . Then more and more.  

What we mean by maturity is in large part being calm. Most of us never got much past our learned emotionality in childhood. We are emotional, or else we pretend to be calm but are emotional inside. 

But once having found and recommitted to what you know in your heart, you will become impervious to stress. Responding more and more to the inner light from God, trusting in it, and believing it saves you from responding to and becoming a slave of external tease and challenge. 

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