Thursday, April 30, 2009

What is faith?


What is faith?

I excercize my faith every time I plant a seed, whether it is a corn seed that will prosper and be reaped as a beautiful harvest or an idea or suggestion I give to another person.

Faith for me came when I was a child and searched my reason for being. I read and thought and talked about it and prayed and thought some more before being baptized.

Faith is a deep understanding that God created this world and my reason for being is because of God’s love for me to be brought into this world.

As everyone has, my faith has been tested many times but thankfully it hasn’t been weakened but only strengthened.

When you are little you have faith your parents will take care of your needs. As your body and mind grows it is natural to search why you are here so you can grow and make plans for your life.

We get a lot of help and hindrances along that path but one day the light comes on and you KNOW why you are here and what you are to do about it. I pray for the person who never find this deep belief for them which is the foundation of faith.

Faith is one of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church points these out clearly;

“Faith

1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God."78 For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."79

1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it.80 But "faith apart from works is dead":81 when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks."82 Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."83

At this point in my life it is easy for me to believe this and try to practice it every hour of my existence. Some people make this belief very difficult but for me it is so easy.

I can’t and don’t want to imagine where I would be without my faith

3 comments:

  1. Well Ed - here I am signed on and ready to comment. I know you have been following my block and it is time to start following yours. So what do you write about in your blog - life, crops, farming, religion, philosophy, etc>?

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  2. Anything that comes to my mind Daniel, I think you pretty well covered the topics so far! Pretty the daily life of a farmer and ag consultant who spent his career as an ag teacher and county extension agent.

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