Practical Faith Defined

Quick note: For those of you reading this via All Things Fellowship, by e-mail, or on Facebook, the inspiration for me creating a blog was having a place to explore a life of faith lived through practice. I've been writing for a while now and it seems like a good time to define again what it means to have practical faith. The inspiration for the title is the following verse in Philippians 4:8-9 NIV:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

My question to you today is "What is it for you that makes your faith a reality?" How do you reconcile your faith with the world around you, with science, with dissenting opinions? Belief is a crazy thing. We can believe things that have absolutely no basis in fact and accept them as completely true. Add in spiritual faith and it can even be volatile. Think about this...somewhere in the world right now there is a person who believes something so completely that they are either in the process of or about to blow themselves to pieces taking as many people as possible with them. There has to be something to make that belief real and tangible to convince them it's worth dying over.

I believe it is important for you and I to figure out not only what it is we believe (and I sincerely hope you believe in Jesus), but why we believe it. If we're put here to love one another then we need to love others enough to know what we're talking about. The belief is the faith part of the equation, and the why is part of the practice. I believe the art of practicing your faith happens in two areas.

First, we have to use the tools with which God has equipped us. God will put people in your life who can speak truth and wisdom into it. Learning to listen to them is critical. God also gave us a great little guidebook for life call The Bible. It may not contain all of the answers to everything in the universe, but it contains everything we need as Christ Followers to continually learn and grow in our faith. Learning more about the things God wanted us to learn means we are better equipped to talk to others about God, about Jesus, and about the foundation of our belief.

Second, we have our life experiences. You are the evolution of the circumstances and experiences that make up your life. They influence who you are and who you will become. Some of those experiences aren't going to be pleasant to be sure, but they are all opportunities to see and experience God...and to learn. They are also a great basis to relate your experience to others who are going through something you've been through. It gives you credibility and helps build trust.

Your job now is to dig in and examine your faith. Examine the reasons for believing what you believe. Go see what the Bible has to say about it. Look at different translations to get a clearer picture. Ponder the things you've been through in your life and think about how you can use them to help others.

Be a thinker and a doer!