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Q21
Q21. (Ephesians 2:8-9) What exactly is faith? Can we take credit for having it? Can we be condemned for lacking it? Define "faith" in terms a 10-year-old could understand. 
Faith is trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of our sins, as well for spending eternal life with Him. We were spiritually dead as we studied earlier, and when dead we are utterly hopeless and helpless to come to Jesus in our own strength; we need God to awaken the fact that we are sinners desperately in need of a Saviour (John 6:44). Once we have come to this realisation we have the choice of accepting Jesus or refusing Him. It is only now by making the right choice that we can take some credit for having faith in accepting Christ. We come to Jesus and tell Him that we no longer depend on ourselves or our own good works any longer, and that we can never make ourselves righteous before God. It is an attitude of the heart that depends not at all on our own merit but entirely on God’s free gift of grace. Yes, we will be condemned for rejecting our Lord’s offer of salvation. By not putting our trust in Jesus, we are being foolish and deserve to be condemned. Explaining faith to a youngster, “You can always trust Jesus for everything you do. Trust Him to answer your prayers, and to help you when in trouble. This trust is called faith.”
 

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Sometimes I think faith is like VR glasses which allow the wearer to enter the metaverse or "augmented reality." The big difference between VR glasses and the lenses of faith, however, is wearing faith-glasses allows us to see truth, not fiction; God's reality is more "real" than that which we know without looking through the lenses of faith.

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On 7/29/2006 at 6:43 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

Q21. (Ephesians 2:8-9) What exactly is faith? Can we take credit for having it? Can we be condemned for lacking it? Define "faith" in terms a 10-year-old could understand.

Faith is believing God! Stepping out in faith knowing and believing He will be there.

No, I believe faith is a gift also from God, but it only works when we believe and use it.

Faith for a 10 yr. old:  You go into a room, you see a chair and want to sit down, you go over to the chair, sit down and expect/believe it will hold you up.

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Faith is believing the Good News of a free salvation through Christ alone and accepting Christ as Saviour.  We are entrusting ourselves to  Christ alone. Faith is clearly the gift of God.  The Holy Spirit came and transformed our hard hearts into softened hearts to believe and receive Christ's plan of salvation. Faith is a spiritual act and habit; so foreign in  soul that is dead in sin.  However, Christ provides FAITH as well as the GRACE.   We cannot Harbor distrust.   

I remember my grandfather getting me an ice cream cone frequently.   I had faith that he would get me an ice cream cone and a chocolate bar would be in the refrigerator for me.   I had that expectancy that faith that my grandfather had his eyes on me.

 

 

 

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Faith is believing in something that we can’t see. We cannot take credit for our having it. I don’t know if they can be condemned for lacking it. Jesus is trying to draw us all into his saving grace so if somebody decides not to be included then I think they can be condemned for lacking faith.

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