My definition of faith

It's hard to exactly put a definition of faith. I am not a theologian. Ultimately, what faith means to me (which is not necessarily a theologically correct definition of faith) is this:

Knowing that God is still there, is still with us, and that His plan is still going to work. Even at times when earthly happenings make it seem like this is not the case.

A biblical definition of faith is given in this Bible passage from Hebrews:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Hebrews 11: 1-3

As we saw from this Bible reading, faith is about the things unseen (to humans). Likewise, my own definition also comes down to things that we can't see ourselves. Just because we can't see something, it doesn't mean it's not there. I have covered this concept before here. 

Furthermore, we can see from the Bible passage that the things unseen (to us) are actually the most important things, the ones from which the visible things are made: "so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible".

This means that our world and its origins stem from God and the spiritual realm. These unseen things have created the things we see. Thus, the greater of these are the unseen. These are more important. We don't create God from Earth. Earth is instead created by God. 

To apply this in a practical sense, when going through difficulties, it's important to look at those difficulties through the lens of faith, not the lens of things that are immediately visible. Some of those visible things are merely distractions, even though they seem extremely important at the time. This is why I find it helpful to apply my definition of faith (you may prefer to use the one in Hebrews 11: 1-3) when going through anything difficult. 

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