"Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active."
Edith Hamilton
Faith is active…. The simple statement really tells all about faith. I can believe in God, but with out action there is no true faith, for what am I showing, how am I living my faith if not by my actions.
Faith is works, believing in something is a mental process, no action required, but to have faith in it we are required to act upon it.
I may believe in Love, but unless I act upon it love will never happen, I must act to receive the love and to give the love. In the state of belief I have no part to take in love, it remains only a thought a concept that I choose to believe in, it is my actions that prove my faith, it is my actions that activates my faith.
Action is the catalyst of faith, it is the fuel that feeds our desires to know more and do more. Action takes belief to the next level, and places the responsibility in to our hands.
Faith requires action and action requires responsibility, we are to act responsibly with our faith. Belief requires none of this, by me having a belief I have no call to responsibility, nor to action, the belief I have is mine personally. Faith is the fulfillment of our beliefs, it is thru our faith that our belief becomes something more than a thought process.
We can believe in a lot of things, but with out actions our beliefs are stagnate and dead. My belief in the US Government is nothing if I do not take action and vote, my belief in education is dead if I do not educate myself, by belief in health means little if I do not live a healthy lifestyle. If this is all true, and it is, how much more so this is for my belief in God. My statement that I believe in God is a dead statement one with out any true feeling or meaning if i am not willing to take action on my belief.
So ask yourself, do you have belief or faith? Have you taken action based on what you believe?
Paul
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Excellent.
You can only grow your faith by stepping out.
I have been waiting (25 years+) to be filled with the holy spirit BEFORE stepping forward in faith i.e. I didn’t want to botch anything by not walking forward with Christ.
But as you say – faith is ignited by actions – so long as those actions are taken with the aim of building up our faith and bringing us closer to God.