Faith 1.1

In our lives sometimes things get a little out of alignment and if not corrected the end result can be disaster. When I was in school I recall being taught about lines and line segments, it seems if you are off by the smallest degree the end result will be that you miss your mark. The same is true about our Christian walk. Most Christians today when asked "What is Faith" will tell you it is trust and belief and while this is a by product of faith it is not really a definition of faith. The Bible provides us with several insights into faith but a lot of those insights are lost in translation and it is only when we dig into the original words that were used that we begin to grasp the meaning penned by the original writers. It is not my intent to impress anyone with my knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, mostly because if I tried you would not be impressed, so I will simply refer to words and you can look them up as I have had to do. In this beginning article I will lay out a couple of thoughts and hopefully if you begin to follow me these will assist us in our journey together into a deeper understanding of our Spiritual walk.
The Hebrew word for faith means Faithful. Now at first glance most would say "Oh that means we are to be loyal to God", however the root of this word brings out something far more revealing for it carries within it's root word the idea that this faithfulness springs from experience. It drives home the point that we are faithful or loyal to God based on the fact of past experience with Him. He has revealed Himself to us in the past therefor when things get tough we trust Him stay loyal to Him because experience has taught us that He will not leave us. If you have not had a personal encounter with God, if you do not know from past experience that He will be with you and that He is in control, then the basis for your faithfulness is going to break down and you will abandon Him. So at the root of this Hebrew word is the idea that at some point in time we had to have had a personal encounter with the Living God or we have nothing to stand on. This draws us out into a journey that requires the Infinite to break in on our finite lives.
The Greek word for faith means about the same. The word the Greeks use in describing faith is varied but the one that refers to our walk with God is Pistis I may have spelled it wrong but I think it is right look it up if you want. Now this word when broken down to its root meaning has some interesting insights for us. It carries within it's roots the idea of Divine revelation, evidence, and conviction. Here is an interesting thought if you know the Bible you will recall that He is the author and finisher of our faith, the meaning of this word Pistis should cause bells to go off in our head as we ponder the flow of this definition. If God is the author of our faith it must by necessity start with Him. The Greek word does exactly that in that it has the idea of the Divine. In keeping with the Hebrew word this Greek word used by the New Testament writers, such as Paul, requires an intervention by the Divine or Infinite Being. The Greek word also gives us the idea of experience in that it involves the idea of evidence. That would mean at some point in our lives the Divine would have to provide us with some kind of evidence or proof of a thing. The last part of this Greek word's definition is conviction. A conviction is something deeper than a belief it is actually attached to our very core or heart and drives what we do and how we do it.
To conclude this article here is a definition of faith that has helped me understand a great deal as I journey with my God.
Faith is, "Divine Evidence and or Conviction" Think about this if faith is not about our belief but rather about God giving us evidence and or conviction about something then it would by necessity require God to initiate the conversation! I will post more about this next time and I invite you to drop back into my blog. 
Terry