What is Faith?

Going along with prayer, I think faith is another basic doctrinal concept that we, as a general population, just don't really grasp completely. We understand it only as basic concept. We talk about it often, but only in the most simplistic of definitions. This lack of understanding, I feel, has prevented us from developing a culture that truly builds and cultivates faith.

The typical definition of faith is given from either Alma (Alma 32:21) or Paul (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is believing in that which you can't see. A simple and clear definition. But it's not the whole definition. In fact, I don't really think Alma or Paul were trying to define faith at all. It seems to me that their cultures and people already used the word 'faith' in common practice. They weren't defining the word, but clarifying points of the doctrine of faith that their cultures needed to better unuderstand.

Alma clarifies that faith isn't to have a perfect knowledge of things. The Nephites likely had a similar problem as our culture today. They wanted proof of everything. They were learning and gaining knowledge, but having a hard time holding onto it, because they couldn't put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Alma is explaining that once you know something is true (obviously this knowledge can only come from the Spirit), you must hold onto that knowledge, regardless of whether the scientific evidence has yet caught up or not.

Paul, similarly, is responding to the concern that christians are falling away from the church (you have to go back a bit into the previous chapter to get the context... whoever broke up this letter into chapters messed up. The chapter break should probably be between verses 34 and 35 of chapter 10). He is urging the Hebrew congregation to hold onto hope and trust and not fall away. Faith means holding onto your trust in God, regardless of a lack of evidence, and he goes into a long list of examples of well known stories of those blessed for trusting in God (the conclusion is in verse 13).

Ok, so if those aren't the definitions of faith, how do you define faith?

It's hard to define faith. It's kind of an abstract concept. Joseph Smith was adamant to explain that faith is a prinicple of power and a principle of action. Faith empowers us to act.

Let me explain further. Why do you do what you do? Why do you go to school? Why do you work? Why do you do anything? You do these things because you believe that they will will result in a better life than if you do not. We go to school because we believe it will result in a better job. We work because we believe that at the end of the week we will receive a paycheck. Are these results guaranteed? What if your employer refused to pay you one week? In other words, our confidence is very high in these results because we've had experience, or we trust in the previous experiences of others. But we don't have a perfect knowledge of it.

How willing would you be to get on a plane destined for Japan? How do you know Japan is even there? Have you ever been there? Have you seen it? Who's to say that those images you've seen on TV or magazines aren't really from some other place? Would you still get on that plane knowing that if it's not there your plane will crash and you will die?

We do these things because we believe in the promised results, we trust in previous experience (our own, or those of others). This is faith.

Faith is the trust we have in consequences that determine our actions.

If we don't do what we say we believe, do we really believe it? If we believe a certain action is worthwhile, and we don't do it, was it really worthwhile to us? Or was sitting back and relaxing truly what we considered more worthwhile to us?

Now that we understand faith, how do we build it? Back to a previous post, how about giving it a shot, or experimenting? If you go to work and after the first week you receive a paycheck, won't that give you more confidence that you will get one the next week? Or what of trusting others? How can you come to trust other's experiences more? More testimonials from different people? A testimonial from someone you already trust? What would make you willing to get on that plane to Japan?

When you understand what gives you (everyone is different, we trust different amounts for different reasons) the confidence to go out and do something, you can understand what would build faith in Jesus Christ for you. Once you understand that, go out and seek those trust builders. And when you have enough trust to try, trust in your own experiences that you have as a result of your faith. This is what Paul was trying to say. "Cast not away therefore your confidence" (Hebrews 10:35).