By: Randall E. Pickens, Sr.
Recently someone asked; what does faith feel like? My immediate impulse was to respond by saying faith can’t be felt or rather we don’t rely on our feelings. We have all been trained to unleash the doctrinal or clinical response. Frankly, it is a very good question and the answers are too often attempted by those who don’t know what faith feels like. Now before you get offended please consider the following explanation.
First let me present that the question is actually incomplete and so the answer will be as well. The question has no object to be evaluated. To ask what faith feels like treats faith as though it is an independent force or exists in and of itself as though it has no object. This is the real problem with the question; faith must have an object. The source of faith must be known and understood before we can begin to respond to such a question.
So, let’s consider how the question should be phrased. How does it feel to have faith in God? Or, how does it feel to have faith in Jesus? Or, how does it feel to have faith in man? Or, how does it feel to have faith in a system of governance, etc., you get the picture. The word faith should never be used without a qualifier.
Actually, to say one has faith in God is equally insufficient because the God of their faith is not revealed in this vague statement. You see, their God could be Jehovah or Baal. Their God could be any number of proposed deities and varied doctrinal belief systems. You see why it is so important to know the object of one’s faith?
So, with this being said, lets address the question based on this structure; how does it feel to have faith in Jesus. We will consider the following scriptures
- Heb 12:2 Looking unto “Jesus” the author and finisher of our faith.
- Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews chapter 11 is the “Faith Hall of Fame”! The subject of Faith takes a life time to learn but the key is in the word “hope”, Greek “elpizo” G1680; to expect or confidence.
So, the feeling we would have is one of expectation and confidence; as we embrace the WORD of God as revealed by Jesus as TRUTH. Selah…
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