{"id":6539,"date":"2020-07-04T20:20:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T10:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6539"},"modified":"2020-07-04T20:20:47","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T10:20:47","slug":"put-off-doubt-put-on-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/put-off-doubt-put-on-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Put Off Doubt, Put on Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Put Off Doubt, Put on Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Louise Makarious<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having faith sounds simple. It\u2019s something we\u2019re taught to do early on and as Christians we pledge in every liturgy to have faith in the Christian paradigm \u2013 that is, Christ\u2019s resurrection and our salvation, with eternal life. If I believe in Christ, then I gain eternity, simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But\u00a0as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name”<\/em> – John 1:12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I have spent a lot of time trying to make logical sense of Christianity. How can Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and resurrection actually save us or how does the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ during each liturgy, and so on? These were typical questions of doubt, from a faith not yet fully grown. “We walk by faith, not by sight” – St Paul teaches us this in 2 Corinthians 5:7. It is not unusual to presume that faith is blind based on this verse. On the contrary, faith is to walk with spiritual eyes, and not our earthly vision. Doubt is warranted, and should be explored. If God did not want His children to question, He wouldn’t have given us free will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as \u201cconfidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not se<\/em>e.\u201d Faith is complete belief and trust without a seemingly logical explanation. Daniel was a great prophet that many could see God dwelling in his humble being. After presenting him with a series of visions that were interpreted by Gabriel, the messenger of the Lord, he was left with a final sentence – “Go\u00a0your way,<\/em>\u00a0Daniel, for the words\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” – Daniel 12:9. Our doubts are not ignored by the Lord, He listens and He answers, but there will always be a limit to how much we can handle. Not even in the greatness of faith of Moses could He witness the glory of God. Ultimately, our God is incomprehensible, eternal and comparable to none and this is where our faith comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God speaks to our hearts in our every day lives, pushing us along the path of salvation, but He is not the mighty wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, but the still small voice (1 Kings 19:13). He will guide each of us along the path for as long as we are open to hearing His voice amid a world of tumult and tribulation. Through it all, we know that He is in control in ways we may not fully know, but we trust based on His providence to this date that He will leave us nor forsake us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, I\u2019ve learnt that having complete faith in God isn\u2019t something of the head but of the heart. It does not require the struggle to try and comprehend Him, a power too divine for us to understand, but to trust in Him despite the unknown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we practice faith\nin our everyday lives? Whenever we\u2019re struggling with a dilemma, unsure of the\nfuture or going through a rough time, the most common advice we hear is to\n\u201chave faith\u201d or \u201cGod\u2019s got a plan\u201d. At the time, it usually seems like pretty\nuseless advice, but what does it really mean to \u201chave faith\u201d? How can we trust\nin \u201cGod\u2019s plan\u201d for us, if we can\u2019t see any plan that would relieve us from our\nproblems or stressors? Again, doubt. Doubt often makes us feel alone in our\nproblems and responsible to find our own solution, contributing anxiety and\nworry. Faith, on the other hand, means we are never alone and there is always a\nsolution, even if we can\u2019t see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way for faith to practically change our lives everyday is by prayer. Psalm 138:3 says, \u201cIn the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul\u201d. Making our worries and concerns known to God gives us inner strength that we will never experience turmoil alone. Like David, who had faith in God to help him defeat Goliath and deliver his people, we too can practice faith in situations that may seem unlikely or impossible to us. Faith allows us to act on what we have not yet experienced and trust in God\u2019s plan when our situations seem hopeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With practice, faith becomes less of a\nvague, unreachable religious concept to a more practical, tangible and\nincredible experience everyday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Put Off Doubt, Put on Faith By Louise Makarious Having faith sounds simple. It\u2019s something we\u2019re taught to do early on and as Christians we pledge in every liturgy to have faith in the Christian paradigm \u2013 that is, Christ\u2019s resurrection and our salvation, with eternal life. If I believe in Christ, then I gain … Continue reading “Put Off Doubt, Put on Faith”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[104,25,159,165,364],"class_list":["post-6539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-doubt","tag-faith","tag-tribulation","tag-trust","tag-unseen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6541,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539\/revisions\/6541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}