Have faith is a common advice from a lot of people. When a Christian says it within the rubric of the Christian worldview it has a specific meaning. It does not imply believe that things will turn out alright, it does not mean have faith in your self. It means have faith in God's purpose for you, know that he actively intervenes in the affairs of mankind and subordinate yourself to God's purpose purpose. That presupposes a belief in the existence of God and the existence of an afterlife.
Taking a look at the presuppositions, are they blind beliefs or are they justified true beliefs? Take the first, existence of God. Many have argued that it is the latter using a variety of arguments pegged on a beginning for time, existence of morality, life and its properties, explainable attribute of nature and the world around us etc. Listen to any debate between an atheist and a theist, you can see that it is a reasonable belief to hold. With regard to existence of an afterlife, Christ and his resurrection are seen as a historical event and that is a powerful evidence for existence of an afterlife. Again, refer to historians debating the matter of resurrection, there are grounds to hold to the belief of historical event of resurrection.
I have dealt with the presuppositions only summarily because they are vast topics in itself and many have dealt with it extensively in the past and I see no reason to go there again. I do a broad reference to the justification for those beliefs only to make the claim that these presuppositions are more justified beliefs and therefore more in the domain of reason and less a matter of faith.
Given the above, what does it mean to have faith in the Christian sense of the term at a concrete level. Stemming from the presuppositions and at a more flesh and blood level, have faith refers to believing in God's assurance and His love. And that is a matter of faith. Existence of God is not a matter of faith, what God is is a matter of faith.
A way in which I can explain that faith is to narrate a story an uncle once told me about my father (his younger brother) and my grand father. My father was involved in campus politics when he was into his graduation at a college in Kerala. There were instances when police came searching for him and there were perhaps the threat of some kind of minor violence. My grand father gave a word to my father then. "Eda evidelum kozhappathil chennu chaadiyal, vilichekkanam, njaan vannu kondokkolam." (Hey, if you run into some trouble, call me, I will come and take you home.) Now, the son can find solace in the words of the father and live life with that assurance. However, there can always be doubts about whether the father can cross the distances, overcome the challenges, whether the father will practice tough love or soft love, whether the father might take the wrong strategy or the right strategy, will the father misread the situation, have I gone too far in my ways so on and so forth. But the word of the father gives the son a sense of assurance that seems to transcend these doubts in some manner enabling the son to live with that assurance. And that I believe is what is implied by having faith. There is a word that we have from our Living God, our Father and we have a sense of assurance in that word. In other words, we must place our faith in the word and more importantly in the God and Father who gave the word. It is that faith which helps us live life to the fullest.
Yes, there are instances when we waver in our faith. We do not experience that sense of assurance. It is not uncommon. What we must realise is that it is not lack of evidence that leads to that absence of sense of assurance. For those of you familiar with the story of exodus of Israelites from Egypt, they had all the evidence of God being with them and yet they strayed and there were moments when they did not have the same sense of assurance when faced with trouble (response of Caleb compared to others brings out this rather sharply).
So what do we do when we find that assurance to be missing. Well, what would we do if it is our biological father? We will speak to him or we will remind ourselves of instances where he has pulled us out of trouble. Same with God our Father, pray and refresh your memory of his saving grace in the Bible and in your own life.
Taking a look at the presuppositions, are they blind beliefs or are they justified true beliefs? Take the first, existence of God. Many have argued that it is the latter using a variety of arguments pegged on a beginning for time, existence of morality, life and its properties, explainable attribute of nature and the world around us etc. Listen to any debate between an atheist and a theist, you can see that it is a reasonable belief to hold. With regard to existence of an afterlife, Christ and his resurrection are seen as a historical event and that is a powerful evidence for existence of an afterlife. Again, refer to historians debating the matter of resurrection, there are grounds to hold to the belief of historical event of resurrection.
I have dealt with the presuppositions only summarily because they are vast topics in itself and many have dealt with it extensively in the past and I see no reason to go there again. I do a broad reference to the justification for those beliefs only to make the claim that these presuppositions are more justified beliefs and therefore more in the domain of reason and less a matter of faith.
Given the above, what does it mean to have faith in the Christian sense of the term at a concrete level. Stemming from the presuppositions and at a more flesh and blood level, have faith refers to believing in God's assurance and His love. And that is a matter of faith. Existence of God is not a matter of faith, what God is is a matter of faith.
A way in which I can explain that faith is to narrate a story an uncle once told me about my father (his younger brother) and my grand father. My father was involved in campus politics when he was into his graduation at a college in Kerala. There were instances when police came searching for him and there were perhaps the threat of some kind of minor violence. My grand father gave a word to my father then. "Eda evidelum kozhappathil chennu chaadiyal, vilichekkanam, njaan vannu kondokkolam." (Hey, if you run into some trouble, call me, I will come and take you home.) Now, the son can find solace in the words of the father and live life with that assurance. However, there can always be doubts about whether the father can cross the distances, overcome the challenges, whether the father will practice tough love or soft love, whether the father might take the wrong strategy or the right strategy, will the father misread the situation, have I gone too far in my ways so on and so forth. But the word of the father gives the son a sense of assurance that seems to transcend these doubts in some manner enabling the son to live with that assurance. And that I believe is what is implied by having faith. There is a word that we have from our Living God, our Father and we have a sense of assurance in that word. In other words, we must place our faith in the word and more importantly in the God and Father who gave the word. It is that faith which helps us live life to the fullest.
Yes, there are instances when we waver in our faith. We do not experience that sense of assurance. It is not uncommon. What we must realise is that it is not lack of evidence that leads to that absence of sense of assurance. For those of you familiar with the story of exodus of Israelites from Egypt, they had all the evidence of God being with them and yet they strayed and there were moments when they did not have the same sense of assurance when faced with trouble (response of Caleb compared to others brings out this rather sharply).
So what do we do when we find that assurance to be missing. Well, what would we do if it is our biological father? We will speak to him or we will remind ourselves of instances where he has pulled us out of trouble. Same with God our Father, pray and refresh your memory of his saving grace in the Bible and in your own life.
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