"and keep your faith and a clear conscience. Some people have not listened to their conscience and have made a ruin of their faith." (1 Tim 1:19, GNT) Our faith, our belief is all that we have. It is what makes us tick. It is the bedrock of our existence. It is the basis of what we profess. If we separate ourselves from our faith, we become like Samson who divulged the secret of his strength and was shaved bald,reducing him to an "any other man" (Judges 16:7). The just shall live by faith (Hab 2:4). The righteous are declared righteous as a result of faith. And Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness (Rom 4:3(. We can have no relationship with God except we have faith for without faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe... (Heb 11:6). Our spirituality, our christianity, our stance in life and spiritual matters is only as good and as efective as our faith. Our faith determines our fate. It is the vehicle that carries us through life. The faith I am speaking of here is some special kind of faith, or some special gifting, or anything that is reserved to only a few individuals. I am simply referring to faith in its simplest and basic form. The kind which Jesus says if we can have so much as the size of a mustard seed, then we can move mountains. I am referring to the faith that represents the sum total of our belief, our doctrine, our spirituality. I am referring to the faith that constitutes our belief system. .
Every person alive has a belief system, and this belief ultimately determines their actions. This belief system (faith) arises from the aggregation of what they have experinced, proven and accepted to be true and facts. As christians we are to have a belief system that is based on the word of God which ultimately will control our speech, thought and action. We are not different from our faith. We are inseparable from our faith. Our faith, what we belief is exactly who we are. And this identity should be protected at all cost. We should guard our belief for out out of them flows the issues of life.
To be continued...