What does the word faith elicit in your mind ?  The definition of faith is…” confidence or trust in a person or thing”. Perhaps we should ask ourselves again, in whom do we trust? Is it our President, our boss, our parent, some other family member, or perhaps some other champion of our lives. Children today are influenced by video games and what they view on TV. They begin to believe in spider man, batman, superman, or a number of fantasy characters; sometimes so much so that when they grow they cannot distinguish fantasy from reality and become confused. Parents naturally want to protect their children from the hard realities but allow those same children to become absorbed in video games that merely desensitize  children to reality. Many become disillusioned by reality when they have to face it, and life becomes bitter. We are all prone to lose hope that the future will be any better. Day after day, the news today is depressing, negative beyond imagination. As a nation, as a world community, we all live in a time of anxiety, full of multitude uncertainties. We witness acts of evil all over the world, and become anxious that such things could happen in our town, possibly even next door. We are reminded of our own mortality and wonder about how our own life might end, about our relationship with God. We silently ask ourselves …”Am I responsible for my own life and actions? Am I going to be held to account for what I have done, what I have thought? Is there a judgement?” When we think that our soul (most of us realize we have one of those) might go on into eternity, more questions…” Does the soul really separate from the body at physical death  and where does it go? Is my soul going where it might be better or worse than existence in this body on this earth? Is there really a heaven and hell?” Most of us have had these thoughts in one form or another as we mature, and many of us have become anxious as a result of these real questions. How can we become settled, at peace, as we confront these very basic issues to all of mankind? In whom can we place our trust? Perhaps now is a time to ask yourself a crucial question; what DO I believe? In whom do I have trust? I believe what a person believes and in whom each one of us places our FAITH makes a crucial difference with regard to eternity and this is universally true for all of mankind.

Most people have some system of beliefs on which they pattern their own lives. We naturally seek to emulate role models. We learn how to live from the examples of others, mothers and fathers, grandparents, pastors, teachers, mentors generally older than us, and presumably possessing greater wisdom. The influence of these role models shapes much of how we develop and who we become as adults. And some of our behavior, psychologists say, are manifestations of our subconscious mind, due to retained memories which may have been locked there for long periods of time, perhaps experiences we had from childhood which have unknowingly shaped who we have become. We learn so much from the particular society, culture, surroundings in which we exist. We adapt to our environment through our senses; touch, smell, taste, hearing, seeing. Our experiences tend to modify our basic understanding, our belief system, for the better or worse. For example if we live with a negative person long enough we often find it rubs off on us. If we are trained in deceptive business practices when newly in business, we might see it as normal and acceptable; it’s the way of the world. We believe in right and wrong because somehow that has been built into us. But the differences between right and wrong sometimes become indistinct; the area between them becomes grey, no longer black and white, and we adapt by what we adopt in our mind. We learn so much by our life experience, often far more than we learn from what we are taught; true to the old adage ..”Experience is the best teacher”. What part does faith play in our belief system and what is the measure and substance of that faith? 

Throughout much of my life I have wrestled with these questions.  After years of regretting the experiences of my childhood,  I became grateful for the beginnings I had!  The family that parented me and the circumstances in which I was born were by no means perfect, or even agreeable to me at the time. But despite all the struggles, actually because of all the difficulties, I began to believe that my existence is not an accident, it had been planned by my Creator all along.  I asked myself the questions posed above and sought real answers. How did this change come about? God did the work out of His great love for me; He gave me the gift of faith.

I believe God’s spirit is implanted within each one of us human beings from the moment we are created in our mother’s womb. I had the good fortune and privilege of being born into a Christian family in the United States of America. I am grateful for the freedom I have as an American to believe as I do and worship as I please.  I was baptized in a Christian church when an infant and know God honored that in my life. I was taught about God from an early age in Sunday school and much of what I heard, saw and read was retained in my mind. When I came of age to make decisions for my self, I put aside much of what I was taught, and pursued my own destiny. I was determined to make something of myself, until disaster struck. But then God in His benevolence revealed the truth of his word to me; …”For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I realized in those moments that I was on a self defeating path to destroying everything I had worked towards because I was following my thoughts and had set my own will accordingly. I confessed that I was indeed a sinner for I was ashamed and convicted of the way I had conducted my life to that point. And I knew I could not fix myself. I accepted Christ as MY Lord and Savior, God as my spiritual Father, and invited the Holy Spirit to become operative in my life. That day, over 43 years ago, I became a person of faith. God has remained steadfastly present in my life ever since, even though I have repeatedly strayed from Him.  I am continually reminded of His promises expressed through His son …”I will never leave you nor forsake you”.  That truth has been certainly borne out in my life. The Bible says …”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). In WHOM do you have faith?

“Faith of our fathers, faith and prayer shall win all nations unto thee; And through the truth that comes from God, mankind shall then indeed be free.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.”

AMEN