Belief, Trust, and Faith

William and I had a wonderful conversation this morning about  believe, trust, and faith –It’s easy to believe; one can believe anything.  In fact, Hitler said that if you lie to the public long enough, they will believe that it is truth.  The bible even says that the devil believes and trembles (James 2:19).    So, for someone to say, “I don’t believe in God” is really mocking God, and that is dangerous territory.  

Trust can also be in anything – one trusts what they believe.   However, to have faith in God is different than believing in God.  The point is, to say that belief, trust, and faith are the same, is not true. 

Faith (listen, trust, act upon it).  Faith and trust are close, but faith is a whole thing – complete.  Belief and trust are the same – you trust it is true, you believe – only faith has all three.

The point is, by the time you get to faith, you have to act on it – it cannot  remain dormant.  James 2:20-26 says that you must have action or works to show that your faith is alive.  If you believe in something, trust in something, you talk about it, you share it – football fans know all about that and boy do they get all worked up and have such ‘faith’ in their team – they show their ‘works’ by going to the games, dressing up (or down, as the case may be).  Christians, as a whole, don’t even get that worked up!  And isn’t their Faith in God/Jesus supposed to be the most important thing in the world to share?  And how many do so?

There are a multitude of scriptures that talk about faith – the most popular one is the whole chapter of Heb. 11 – the bottom line is that if you do not act on your faith, it will die and you are left with just trust and belief and that isn’t enough.  Yes, acting on your faith WILL cost you.  As God grows your faith, you will be given bigger opportunities to act on your faith, and so on.

That is what has happened to us.  We were given small tasks (sharing the gospel with others), then it grew to feeding the homeless and sharing the gospel, then it grew to preaching to larger crowds, and now we are here doing things way beyond our abilities (only God gives it), finances, and even energy at times.   We have to have total trust, belief, and faith in our God to get us through it all.

The point is, if you never start acting on the small stuff, it won’t grow to be used for the big stuff.

So you believe in once saved always saved?   The popular phrase is “you can’t lose your salvation.”  You don’t lose something God puts in you.  You can live your whole life like you never believed it (no faith).   But you can walk away from it.  That’s the point – God doesn’t take it away, you give it away by not believing, trusting, and having faith.

According to the Apostle Paul, if he did not control his body, he himself would be a castaway (the Greek says a reprobate).  If the Apostle Paul could lose his salvation, so could any of us.  Here are some other scripture to give validity to this doctrine:
Hebrews 6:1-6; Prov. 14:14; I Cor. 15:2; Luke 11:24; 32; II Peter 3:17; 2:20; Rev. 3:11; Hebrews 6:4-6; Ezekiel 18:24; Isaiah 55:7.