There is a saying, “love is blind and lovers cannot see.”
The real meaning of love is “A strong feeling of personal affection, care, and desire for the well-being of others.” It is a primary characteristic of God’s nature (1 John 4:8
If you are only physically attracted to your opposite sex it is not love it is called lust. Real love involves knowing the person for who he is or who she is. You need to know the good and the bad characteristics of that person. Real love is not easy it takes time to develop.
What about faith, is there a blind faith? Yes, there is a blind faith. The dictionary says, blind faith is a faith without true understanding. It means blind faith has no basis or no foundation.
Example: There are Christian believers believe or claim to have faith in God, that when they die, they will go to heaven. And when you ask, “How?” They will say, “we don’t know but we are sure we will go to heaven.” That is a blind faith. If somebody asked you why you go to church? What is your purpose of going to church? Are you not just wasting your time? What would be your response? If you say “I don’t know” is it a good response? Not at all!
When you worship a god, it might be a wooden image, a person, a spirit, or whatever, you should have a valid reason or proof that a god you worship is really the God, the creator of heaven and earth who has the power to raise or resurrect the dead, otherwise, your worship is in vain.
Again, our faith is blind if we have no real understanding, no basis or foundation. If our faith is blind, we could not fulfill, God’s Great Commission in Matthew 28, which is to share the good news of salvation. As Christians the foundation or basis of our faith is the word of God – the Bible. We need to study said book and understand clearly God’s promises to us.
Apostles Peter 1 Peter 3:15 say, ”But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…”
Peter simply says, that as a believer we should be able to explain clearly to those who ask why we believe what we believe as Christians. Or to give a defense when someone attack or criticize our faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.
” If our salvation is not of our work, but through faith that is the gift of God, is it not important for us to know who God is? Can we just trust our life and salvation to a god we do not know?
You cannot trust a person even your parents that you do not know personally. Example: when you were a baby, your parents abandoned you. You were given to adoption. When you were a ten-ager your biological parents (real parents) came to you and invite you to live with them.
This is the first time you saw your biological parents, for when you were given to adoption you were still a baby. Do you trust to live with them? The right answer is No! Why? Because you do not know them personally, probably you know them just by name. You do not know their character, because you do not have any personal relationship with them except a blood relationship. While your adopted parents, you have personal relationships with them on a daily basis since you were a baby. You know they love you, care for you and provide your needs since the day they adopted you.
Similarly, you may know the name of our Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ, but if you do not have a personal relationship with Him on a daily basis you could not genuinely trust Him. No genuine trust; no genuine faith; no genuine faith; no salvation, because we are saved by grace through faith (genuine faith) in Jesus Christ.
Genuine Faith is The Product of Thinking
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” What Jeremiah is saying, real faith involves reasoning, remembering, and researching or study.
Real faith is hard work. We have to do our part to understand what God is promising, grasp the conditions of those promises, review the evidence of His faithfulness in the past, and hold on to our convictions about the evidence regardless of our changeable feelings, as C.S Lewis, a famous theologian suggested:
When I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods (influence by your feelings) against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods “where they get off”, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature not sure with its beliefs which are dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.
Lewis was saying that faith is actually holding on to what your reason has led you to conclude despite your changing moods or feelings. Meaning, our faith must be based on reason and not feelings. That is why our brain is above our hearts, so that reason should guide our feelings not the opposite. We are called to love God with all our hearts and minds. How can we do that if we do not exert effort to understand His word, seek wisdom, examine everything, and hold to what is true that we discern as the right path.
The next issue is the second part of this article that discusses the three key ingredients of genuine faith namely: knowledge, consent, and trust.
To find the answers of the increasingly complex problems and frightening- developments in the world today, Word Became Flesh Ministries, a non-denominational Bible based church is inviting you to its free interactive Bible study on the six Basic Bible Lessons. For details, see its invitation in this paper.
For previous Biblical Perspectives articles, visit www.wbfmfamily.com