Faith is God’s multi-purpose gift to those he calls. I could logically have begun this sequence of blog posts with faith, but I decided at the time to go through the gifts with complicated-sounding names like Sanctification first.
The entire Trinity is involved.
Faith is God’s multi-purpose gift, and it comes from the Father, by the effective death and resurrection of the Son on our behalf, and through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Our English word faith comes from the Latin root word fidere, meaning trust or bide. Bide, in its turn, means to wait. Webster’s initial definition is: allegiance to duty or a person : Loyalty. Somewhat like a mountaineer’s carabiner clip keeps him attached to a secure rope or piton, faith keeps us loyal to God. Most specifically, to the person of our Savior, Jesus. Our faith rests not on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
Faith is like a carabiner.
Faith is God’s multi-purpose gift.
What else does faith do for us? Faith works in our hearts. It purifies them and changes our hearts to match with God’s plans for us.
Faith works in our minds. It replaces our stubbornness with willingness to obey. We become effective in our work and speech as God’s ambassadors.
Faith affects our lives. We choose differently, and behave more like Christ. We are sanctified.
Faith makes us eager to know Christ in a deeper relationship. We grow in knowledge and understanding.
Faith is a potent reality check. By reminding us how inexperienced we still are, it keeps us inclined to honest self-evaluation. We will therefore use our other God-given gifts in proportion to our faith.
Faith enables us to do more in the world than Jesus did while he was here. Incarnated, he was one man, in one place. We, his adopted brothers and sisters, are many, in many places.
Finally, when others take note of our faith, they are encouraged in their own growth to become like Christ.
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Ruth DeMaat
Heidi Kortman
Kathleen Friesen
Heidi Kortman
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