What Is Faith?

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Faith. It’s a word that gets used and misused a lot these days. People talk about their faith when in fact they’re actually talking about the religion or denomination that they are born into or choose to follow. That isn’t faith, it’s religion. Faith is something much larger than that and has very little, if anything, to do with “religion”.

A good general definition of faith starts out as “a conviction of the truth of something”. Now take a look at Hebrews 11:1 where the Bible defines faith as God sees it:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

The Greek word translated ‘faith’ is pistis {pronounced pis’-tis} [strongs number 4102] means ‘belief with the predominate idea of trust or confidence’ which agrees with the general definition that we started out with.

The word ’substance’ in the text is translated form the Greek hypostasis {pronounced hoop-os’-tas-is} [strongs number 5287] and its meaning talks about ‘the thing put under, the substructure, foundation, confidence, firm trust, assurance

Faith is much more than mere believing in God, it is a trust and confidence in God and what He has promised us and made available to us. The writer of Hebrews is not simply saying that faith is what something hoped for is made of, but that faith is the foundation and assurance of that hope.

In modern everyday usage, hope has come to mean something synonymous with ‘wish’, as in ‘I hope I get that raise’ where the person saying it is expressing that they wish that they would get the raise, but that they do not necessarily expect to actually get it.

The Greek word translated ‘hoped’ in this verse is elpizo {pronounced el-pid’-zo} [strongs number 1679] and means ‘to wait with joy and full confidence’ It is derived from elpis {el-epice’} [strongs number 1680] and means ‘to anticipate, usually with pleasure, joyful and confident expectation’

This is the faith that God wants from us. This is the faith without which it is impossible to please God. This is the childlike faith that Jesus taught about and found in so few.

This faith is what makes it possible for a person who is in the depths of spiritual despair to call out to Jesus to accept the gift of salvation that will take away the pain, loneliness and futility from life and restore that person’s soul.

This faith, combined with study of the scripture and prayer, will renew and transform the mind.

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