What does having faith really mean?

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   The Sharkposted 15 years ago

   What does having faith really mean?
   
   Why not write about faith in someone's life, what it means, and how having faith means not abandoning it in difficult times.

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   yes2truthposted 15 years ago

   Having faith, first and foremost, is realising that it's not your/our faith. Faith is a free gift along with grace.
   
   Eph 2:8-9 (KJV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
   
   When we exercise this gift (i.e. through our works) we then create our faith. Our faith then earns us rewards stored in heaven. It does not earn us salvation.
   
   Unexercised faith is known Biblically as "faith alone". The man in the parable of the talents buried his "faith alone" in the ground and eventually lost it and it was given to the others.
   
   Keeping on keeping on believing, no matter what trials we experience, is exercising the faith we were given, but be warned, for this in the minimum The Lord expects. He wants us to do more, so we also have to take leaps of faith according to the talents we were given if we want to store those rewards.

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   Kebennett1posted 15 years ago

   Having Faith means believing and trusting in that which is unseen. Knowing for certain in your heart and mind that it exists even though you can not see it. Trusting in an outcome being placed in the invisible hands of another. Knowing that no matter whatever that outcome is, there is a good, logical reason for it even though you may not know what it is now.

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   Ballaholicposted 15 years ago

   That which makes the tounge speak, but cannot be spoken-
   That which makes the mind think, but cannot be understood-
   (this is a short excerpt hindu text about what is God (monotheistic)
   
   I just wrote this in another Hub (hoping around today from religion to religion) but I felt the Catholic view of faith stated durning the coucil of trent (I believe, or the 5th council of the lateran) which is:
   
   faith is more than a belief, it's a way of life
   
   Do you just believe, or do you live the gospel everyday?
   
   To me that's faith

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   topgunjagerposted 15 years ago

   Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking, you know, being a religious mindless robot that will believe anything he was told about God=)

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   smitzrposted 15 years ago

   Faith means...believing that with hope and prayer things wil be ok. Hope comes from within and is strengthened by prayer. Prayer to a higher power of "Good". For, Good is God, as Ghandi put it. God can be Mohamed, Jesus, Bhudda, the Great Creator, or any of the other "Gods". For, if it is good, it is God. Let all that isn't good fall by the wayside. Now...just what is "good"?  That is the true question. To begin with, Good is peace, and the desire for peace. It is understanding and loving each other, and tolerance of differences and inclusion of all in the quest for peace and understanding. I have witnessed and celebrated faith all of my life. Read about the 'relic' and the 'light' in my hub and linked blog, "Just A Dozen".

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   Torch Harrisonposted 14 years ago

   Faith is knowing something without being able to verify that fact.  For example...let's say I go to work.  While I'm at work, a terrible storm and a tornado goes through my neighborhood where I live.  But I'm at work, blissfully unaware of the storm.  I have total faith that my house is still where I left it in the condition it was in when I did.  Regardless of whether or not it was actually damaged or destroyed, during that time I have complete faith that my home exists.  That is faith.

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   Shahid Bukhariposted 14 years ago

   To Believe in The Truth ... Means, Having ... the Right Belief. And the Right Belief, Is, the True Faith ... not a belief, based in False hopes, and expectations.
   
   And though we can abandon any idea, or thing, with utmost ease, or with some difficulty, it is better, that if, or when, we must abandon, we should Abandon, Fallacy ... Never let go of our Faith.
   
   Sticking to The Truth, in the Ups and Downs of Life ... In total Submission ... Is, the Sign of the Correctly Believing Believers, hence, the benchmark of the truly Faithful.

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   stepchangeposted 14 years ago

   I think faith means believing in something regardless of whether it is factually true or not.
   
   In some circumstances, it can help us if we "fool" ourselves into thinking that everything will be OK. This is because positive thinking makes us behave more positively.
   
   However we should recognise the power of this illusion - when people don't deal with personal issues, faith can be the first to get in the way and try to fill the gap with fantasy and imaginary stories of concepts like god, right & wrong, etc. People like this type of faith because it re-assure's them and avoids them having to dealing with the often harsh real world.
   
   So having faith means having the intelligent ability to know how to use the power of positive thinking to help one'self and understanding its limitations on the real world.

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    DrChiposted 12 years ago

    Faith is not a reference to this mindless indoctrination that one witnesses within an institutionalization of violence. Therefore our ability to have faith cannot be compared nor measured by a concept that institutionalizes violence. This institutionalization of violence can be determined by the expression of violence that we readily seek in society on three distinct levels (overt, structural, and spiritual violence) to attain our needs as individuals. However, this can be expressed as a self-feeding loop that perpetuates the propensity for others to need violence because they are made to compete with one another due to this mechanism of deprivation of resources in society that increases the need for manipulation, exploitation, and oppression of society as a whole. This can readily be seen in the structural violence of our institutions of our existing society through its inability to provide for the needs of all in a way that must come at the detriment or deprivation of no one! Having faith is the realization of truth on a level that allows us to create a network or discipleship where all its individual members can entrust their love and compassion for one another to readily know at any given time that it is this faith that will guide them to the truth that they seek. So no matter what that truth may originally be founded it and no matter what fundamental purpose it may have originally served, the ability to have faith in such a discipleship or network allows for a social ability to help one another realize a common pathway. This pathway becomes more and more refined as a pathway of truth in way that it naturally leads us to an altruistic destiny where our ability to express such truth, compassion, and love for every member of this newly founded society becomes second nature as a fundamental expression in the purpose of life itself. This is the process of having faith in a self-revealing purpose of our networking and discipleship that can't originally be known by any one individual. However, by pursuing such a goal, it naturally leads us to the realization of truth that we seek through a unity-in-diversity. Its meaning and revelation become self-evident as the institutionalization of peace that creates a paradigm shift in society to allow all those who were originally incapable of making such a "leap of faith" something more tangible that they needed. This becomes the expression of faith bridging this gap that once prevented them from making such a leap.

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    shona-09posted 11 years ago

    Faith is believing in something that cannot be proven

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    Rose Vallespinposted 11 years ago

    Faith from my point of view can mean belief in things hoped for, the trust on things you have not seen but believe in its reality.  Faith is always exercised to wards God and faith means so much trust in what you want that you don’t need any explanation or justification from anywhere and you will not need to doubt or investigate the problem or what you want because you have faith for manifestation.

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    Harishprasadposted 11 years ago

    For some people, faith is strong belief in God, while others put faith in a Prophet, an Enlightened Person, things of Nature, etc. etc. People have faith in different entities for the sake of their well-being, prosperity, knowledge, a place in heavenly abode after death and so on. On the contrary, atheists and rationalists assume faith as blind belief in something or some entity and so   they are averse to this idea. Still, believers are not shaken at all.   They have strong reasons to pursue the faiths they have adopted.   Faith acquires different meanings to different believers. Some   believers worship a God who is different from them and is   watching their actions constantly. Such a God will, after the   passage of this life, will make a judgement on the day of   Judgement and award eternal Heaven and eternal Hell taking into  account all actions of the persons. Abrahamic Faiths of  Jews,Christians and Muslims are followed as per this theory. On   the other hand, there is another streak of believers who regard  their souls as smaller versions of the Highest Soul or God. The  souls are encased in bodies and when bodies perish, the persons  are judged on the basis of the good and bad actions committed  by them. Some get heaven as a reward for their good actions and  some get hell as punishment for their bad actions. Neither  heaven is eternal nor the hell but the persons have to spend time  there in proportion with their actions. After exhaustion of intensity  of their actions, God allows the souls to return to the earth to  enter in the various forms of beings starting from lowly creatures  like insects to highly evolved humans. This cycle continues until  one becomes able to identify his soul in human form and this  mingles it in the Highest Self or God. This kind of faith is the  hallmark of Hinduism.Besides this, there is another version of  faith that do not believe in God at all. Jainism, Buddhism and Zen  come fall under this category. These religions regard that the  enlightenment or real knowledge is an only truth and all else is              false and concocted by us humans. Still this kind of believing is  also faith. Bhagwan Mahavira and Mahatma Buddha ,though humans,are worshipped by Jains and Buddhists respectively like Gods. These  are some  prominent faiths of the world  but there are countless others too.

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    erorantesposted 11 years ago

    It means that you believe in something . You can not see. Or believe in something is going to  happen. For example meeting the man or girl of your dreams or fantasy.

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    Kristyn05posted 11 years ago

    Faith is: "Believing without seeing." I have faith everything is alright is like saying I can't see that it will be alright but I just "know" if will.

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    manatita44posted 11 years ago

    I suspect that Faith would have its value in the mundane. Still, In my case I apply it to God as an unshakeable belief in Something Higher, the evidence of things unseen. This Faith is further augmented by my Meditation of some 32 years, as my inner vessel is generally receptive to Higher forces from above.
    
    Now for the second part of your question, I have been taught to chant the word Supreme if in difficulty. I had to do this once two years ago, and sometimes in dreams too. Still, this was a real live case and I was on the verge of being attacked. I simply looked up, and chanted the Supreme with folded hands, and the attacker got scared and walked away.
    
    I was also lost in Austria for nearly four hours. I had faith and so asked for help from my Guru. Two of my Austrian friends were going home and stopped directly in front of me. They told me that they had done this route many times and never got lost. On this particular day, they took a wrong turning, and ended up exactly where I was. I had faith in my Guru, and this is what happened.
    
    My mother had faith that she would be dead in two days. So she told my brother to call us all from different countries so we could go home. He took it as a joke. By the time I got the message two days later, she was already dead. God bless her soul in heaven.

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    Lady Guinevereposted 11 years ago

    I did write about it.  Faith is not a religion.  It is faith in yourself and trust in what you can do.  It is an attitude and has nothing to do with someone or something outside of yourself.  No one can give you faith and trust in yourself but you.  If you have no faith in yourself then you have nothing.

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    HappyMikeWritterposted 10 years ago

    Having a faith means that no matter what comes into your life you get over it. Faith is a power boost for us to understand that nothing in life happens without a reason. Faith is a tool which prevents us from giving up! Faith help us to fight, makes us stronger and focused on our goal.

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    swilliamsposted 10 years ago

    Having faith means believing in something even though others may not. Your determination to see a certain plan through regardless of how others may treat you means that your carrying out your actions in  trust or confidence. And once you have mastered that goal, your achievement represents your faith or belief.

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    Jennifer Bartposted 10 years ago

    To have trust in anything greater than yourself

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    Malick Diopposted 10 years ago

    Faith is said and work and belief is divided into six sections and Mlikth Alaama God and his books and his messengers and other painful and much good and evil

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    Rosualdo Ponceposted 10 years ago

    Faith means  seeing the unseen, and knowing the reality. Faith goes beyond boundary and eternity to have its object. The ultimate object of faith is God. Having faith means you know God, even if you do not know who you are.

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