The Importance of Walking By Faith

[onefour1]

For the most part, our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ do not give us absolute proof of their existence. The reason for this is so that we can learn to walk by faith. In your opinion, why do you think it is necessary that we learn to walk by faith?

 

[skye]

Yes.

Walk, sleep, rest, work..... do everything in Faith.... I pray I could.....but it is so difficult.

 

[johngaltshrugged]

I think it's the same reason He gave us free will.
He does not want robots. He wants us to choose to worship & love Him as our Almighty Creator because He alone is worthy of it. If we were in His presence, we couldn't help but worship Him because His glory is beyond our feeble understanding.
He wants us to make a choice, based on faith, simply because we love Him for who & what He is, with total free will & without the undue influence of witnessing His unimaginable glory affecting our decision.

 

[Votto]

For the most part, our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ do not give us absolute proof of their existence. The reason for this is so that we can learn to walk by faith. In your opinion, why do you think it is necessary that we learn to walk by faith?

Why is faith important?

All you have to do is look at the stories of the Bible to figure that out.

Adam and Eve, walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. They knew with 100% certainty God existed,

But they lost faith in him and partook of the fruit that was forbidden

The Children of Israel watched God unleash plagues upon the Egyptians, while sparing the Hebrew People, then split the Red Sea in two so they could cross, while drowning the Egyptian army that pursued them. Then he gave them manna from heaven to eat. They also knew with 100% certainty that God existed, then they built a statue of gold to worship instead.

So did proving he exists do anything for these people? No.

Also, if there is an all knowing God, you are not. Therefore, there will always be things you don't understand or even be able to comprehend. At such times we need to rely on someone who has the ability, thus the need for faith.

And lastly, the most important thing for God is loving God. Faith is a natural byproduct of such love, as we place our love in other people we love. That is all God is after anyway.

So there ya go, three reasons.

 

[Meriweather]

In your opinion, why do you think it is necessary that we learn to walk by faith?

Jesus said, Seek and you shall find. If one does not have the faith to seek, one cannot find.

 

[skye]

I think it's the same reason He gave us free will.
He does not want robots. He wants us to choose to worship & love Him as our Almighty Creator because He alone is worthy of it. If we were in His presence, we couldn't help but worship Him because His glory is beyond our feeble understanding.
He wants us to make a choice, based on faith, simply because we love Him for who & what He is, with total free will & without the undue influence of witnessing His unimaginable glory affecting our decision.

I agree. ^^^

It's all about free will......................otherwise we would all be Angels.

 

[Votto]

I agree. ^^^

It's all about free will......................otherwise we would all be Angels.

But angels fell because of free will, at least, a third of them went Marxist according to the Bible.

But the reason we have free will boils down to love as well. Love demands that two parties have the freedom to love or reject the other, otherwise, it is not love.

 

[onefour1]

Jesus taught:

Matthew 18:2-5
2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

It is interesting that little children before they learn to walk or talk, simply keep plugging away at those things until they master them. God wants us to doubt not but be believing just as a little child who without complaint keeps on plugging away and learns to walk and talk at a very young age.

The faith of a little child in being able to accomplish these very difficult tasks is amazing. What is it about faith that makes it such a very important principle in our lives?

 

[onefour1]

What I am hearing is that it has something to do with our own personal growth. Is that correct?

 

[Votto]

What I am hearing is that it has something to do with our own personal growth. Is that correct?

Imagine if you will, you are God. You have all power and all knowledge. Therefore, any creation would be like playing tic tac toe with yourself

Boring!!

But imagine if you will, this all powerful God somehow relinquishing that power over your own free will, even if you have knowledge of where that will go?

Even though human beings are smaller than atoms in the universe, that freedom would consume you every thought.

Just a different perspective to think about.

It's really not all about OUR or US anything, it's about God himself.

Humans used to think the universe revolved around them, but oddly it does not.

 

[skye]

What I am hearing is that it has something to do with our own personal growth. Is that correct?

More Free Will than personal grow.............in my personal opinion.

 

[Big Bend Texas]

For the most part, our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ do not give us absolute proof of their existence. The reason for this is so that we can learn to walk by faith. In your opinion, why do you think it is necessary that we learn to walk by faith?

The Universe itself is evidence of an intelligent creator. If I ever get to questioning the existence of God all I have to do is look around me at all of the miracles nature provides to remind me.

I'm a terrible Christian in many ways but a man of solid abiding faith, I try to remind myself as often as I can think of it I should strive to walk in the footsteps of Christ but like all sinners I'm often well off the path.

 

[onefour1]

More Free Will than personal grow.............in my personal opinion.

I think without free will, we would be nothing but acted upon objects. Thus there would be no personal growth. Personal growth is an outcome of free will. Free will is a critical principle in God's purposes for us. I think faith ties into free will. We can choose to doubt or we can choose to believe.

 

[Big Bend Texas]

I think without free will, we would be nothing but acted upon objects. Thus there would be no personal growth. Personal growth is an outcome of free will. Free will is a critical principle in God's purposes for us. I think faith ties into free will. We can choose to doubt or we can choose to believe.

No Free Will = No faith and no "righteous" to enter the Gates of Heaven".

 

[onefour1]

Imagine if you will, you are God. You have all power and all knowledge. Therefore, any creation would be like playing tic tac toe with yourself

Boring!!

But imagine if you will, this all powerful God somehow relinquishing that power over your own free will, even if you have knowledge of where that will go?

Even though human beings are smaller than atoms in the universe, that freedom would consume you every thought.

Just a different perspective to think about.

It's really not all about OUR or US anything, it's about God himself.

Humans used to think the universe revolved around them, but oddly it does not.

I like the perspective of looking at it from God's perspective. What exactly is it that God wants us to become? Jesus tells us the following:

John 17:20-23
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

It appears that the desire of Jesus is that we learn to become one with the Father and Jesus even as they are one with one another. How does faith play a role in becoming like the Father and Jesus?

 

[Big Bend Texas]

How does faith play a role in becoming like the Father and Jesus?

Faith is a choice, we choose either to walk with or without God and it is faith that gives one the desire to do so.

Heaven is the center of God's heart and that's where every believer wants to end up in the end but we can't get there without faith. Without faith there's really nowhere to go.

If we actually have a soul imagine the emptiness of wondering the universe eternally alone.

Compare that existence to spending eternity with God and the other believers.

There's a good many Christian Scholars and those of other faiths that believe Hell rather than a place of eternal torture is just darkness and loneliness. That would be an eternal hell.

 

[onefour1]

I think as mentioned in a post above that we need to look upon faith from the perspective of being in the presence of God verses being out of the presence of God and having our memory of any premortal existence in heaven taken from us in this life. What does it benefit us to not have a perfect knowledge of God but only to walk by faith in this life? What is it about faith that is so important in this life that we learn to walk by it and not by knowledge? JohnGaltShrugged mentioned that if we were in the presence of God we would not be able to resist following God. What does being out of the presence of God give us that is beneficial?

 

[Votto]

I like the perspective of looking at it from God's perspective. What exactly is it that God wants us to become? Jesus tells us the following:

John 17:20-23
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

It appears that the desire of Jesus is that we learn to become one with the Father and Jesus even as they are one with one another. How does faith play a role in becoming like the Father and Jesus?

It's the same reason you have children

 

[Big Bend Texas]

Yes.

Walk, sleep, rest, work..... do everything in Faith.... I pray I could.....but it is so difficult.

If it wasn't challenging it wouldn't be worthy of note or reward.

I think keeping faith is difficult by design.

 

[onefour1]

There's an old saying, "When the cats away the mice will play". Usually I think of this in terms of when I was a kid. When my parents were gone, we kids used to break many of the rules that our parents gave us. As a parent you would hope that your kids would understand why it is important to keep certain rules and keep them. When raising kids, I would much rather have a child who obeys my rules not simply because dad said so, but because they understand why it is important to keep the rule and agree with keeping it. So if you were to ask your kid, why do you keep the rules, you might receive the following responses:

I keep the rules because my Mom and Dad want me to.

I keep the rules because I know they are the good and right thing to do.

I think when living in the presence of God, we would have the tendency to give the first response. However, by placing us in a fallen world where we can experience all manner of good and evil we can learn to choose the good over the evil of our own free will and choice. There is something to it when the cat is away that one is able to make their own choice to do good or evil. I think God sends us to this world to help us grow in character and to learn to be good in and of ourselves. This requires that we have free will, and that we learn to walk by faith and believe in goodness. You truly are a good being when you are not forced to do good or simply feel obligated to do good, but when you choose in and of yourself to do good because you believe in doing good and find happiness in doing so. I think this is what God is trying to bring about in us by placing us on this earth and allowing us to walk by faith. When you are on your own to make choices and define your own standards, you are really faced with the question, "what kind of being do I want to become and what do I really want for myself?". God wants us to be the type of being who will choose good over evil not simply because he wants us to but because we want it for ourselves.

True, there are those who will make wrong choices but through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to at some point realize the wrong we are doing and repent of our sins. God is giving us every opportunity to learn to choose good over evil and find forgiveness for when we make wrong choices. I think this life is really all about having free will to choose to be a good being in and of ourselves. God has at times revealed himself and through his Son Jesus Christ, he has set down the true path of righteousness. But it is up to us to believe in the goodness and to have faith in it and give it a try. By incorporating goodness into our souls and becoming a being who loves goodness more than wickedness we begin to become more like our Father in Heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody tells God what to do or what type of being he needs to be. God does good continually because he chooses to do so in and of himself. This is the type of being God wants us to become. He wants us to learn to choose goodness in and of ourselves. By placing us in a state of not knowing absolutely whether he exists or not allows us to consider his existence and all his good teachings. Ultimately we are converted to the idea of his goodness and seek to become like the being we read about in scripture and begin to have faith in his existence. By experiencing good and evil in this temporary life, we can learn to prize the good over the evil and it becomes a bedrock of our character. We learn to follow the source of all goodness and light. Our characters begin to become more like God and we start to become one with Him and our Savior.

Free will is an eternal principle with God's children. Thus it is essential to God that his children learn to be good beings in and of themselves. This life is meant to give us experience in good and evil and hopefully through those experiences we will learn to prize the good over the evil and incorporate that goodness into our characters. I don't think God wishes for us to only do good because he said so, but he wishes for each one of us to learn to love goodness, like Himself, and make it part of our nature to be good beings of our own free will and choice.

With all beings, having free will has its risks. If we love wickedness more than righteousness, we may never learn to become one with God. But free will is essential in God's eternal plan of happiness for each individual. It is up to each individual to choose his eternal destiiny under God's eternal plan.