"I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also." (2 Tim 1:5, GNT) Faith is one of the concepts in the Bible that is so easy to get confused about. In Gal 5:22, we read about faith as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12: 8, we also read of faith as the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in Hebrew 11:1-6, we are told that faith is the substance of things hoped for. We are also told that the likes of Enoch, Abraham, David, Samson, Gideon, Rahab the harlot, etc were all people of faith. Even the disciples of Jesus in Luke 17:5 suffered the same confusion as they cried in desperation "Increase our faith" in response to Jesus' constant disapproval of their "little" faith. And today, without a proper understanding of the subject, we are bound to remain in the same confused state of oblivion. If it is impossible to please God without faith, I think we all should make a conscious effort to understand exactly what faith is all about. We must suspend every activity and concentrate on discovering the true meaning of this concept if we are truly serious about having any kind of relationship with God. In the last lesson, I wrote on protecting your faith; and in this lesson,I wish to go back to the basics to explain what faith actually is. First, we must understand that our faith is not our church, nor is it our desires. It is not the doctrines and dogmas we have learnt from people. It is not even our religion; whether Christianity, or Islam or Hinduism, etc. What then is our faith? What exactly is our faith? .
Paul writing to Timothy, gave a testimony of a certain kind of faith which has been shared by three generations of his family: His grandmother, Louise; his mother Eunice, and hinself Timothy. I will like to simply state that faith exists in three forms. It is three forms, not three types. And these three forms of existence represents how faith is expressed as a result of how it has been influenced. But in the end, it is the same faith because they all come from one source... the word of God. In all of its occurences in the Bible, the word faith is translated from the Greek word pistis.
In the next Daily Truth lesson, I will explain in details the meaning of this forms, and how we as children of God can beter understand our faith, and protect it. Stay in touch; God bless you