Faith (one’s personal faith) is a varied comodity. Like the word love (some)people use the word faith a little too liberally. Or, more often, they demonstrate faith without thinking about it at all.

I believe the faith we “christians” claim to have is a faith that needs to be exercised more often. We need to work on our faith muscles. Through the years I have observed people working hard to make this or that happen and then say “God is so good, I knew He would show up”. Well no, you manipulated that situation until you got what you wanted.

Here is maybe a better description of exercising our faith muscles. At night when you go into a room and flip the light switch on do you have one ounce of doubt that the lights will come on? No, because you have relied on that light switch a thousand times to bring you what you need.

I am sure everyone knows what Holy Scripture says…”Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Perhaps a better translation for “hoped for” would be “believed for”.

Faith is the most personal thing a person can have. It is heald between one and One.

Mary, mother of Christ, saw all of those things and the Bible says she “treasured them in her heart.” Mary obviously knew a side of God that no one else knew, and she didn’t go out in the street to proclaim his faithfulness, she simply treasured it.

Don’t make any man your judge, Carol. You and God just do your thing.

Amber: Thank you. It is, indeed, rare to have that connection without having to work and work to forge it. Some people try for their entire lives and still don’t find it with ease. I am sure God treasures you, and there are important things to learn from your life.

As you know, I find it difficult to deal with many Christians. They believe that they alone know God. I think that is sad. God speaks to us in so many ways, so that we can understand him fully.

There is no right way. There is only the authentic and personal way. The way to knowing who God is in your heart, and your life. Following him with your own light…

Your posts teach and guide… I believe God speaks through you so that others may hear. Keep writing…. we all need to hear what you can so easily…

Itommylovesmusic, I’ve got to say that you are way off-base with your remark. Where do you get off saying you doubt Shush’s commitment to helping and saving people? I can tell you that she is the most committed and successful person at spreading the word of God I have ever met, and I’ve met quite a few. I can tell you that from what I’ve just read she will be a hell of a lot more successful at bringing people to heaven than you will ever be, you may have more of your “blind”conviction, but she has enlightenment and the ability to relate to people, which will bring people to God a hell of a lot faster than your condescending self-righteous preaching ever will. That long comment you made embodies everything that drove me away from the church in the first place, and it runs contrary to the theme of this post which is that we need to keep our eyes open in our faith and look listen and feel what others are saying and not just blindly spread the word.

You say you come across ridicule for your faith, and I’d like to set the record straight, I don’t ridicule you for it. I rebuke you for the attitude you carry around with it. You are not better than the rest of the world because of your faith, you are not innately more right because of it. You are Itommylovesmusic who happens to be a Christian who claims to be committed to spreading the word of Jesus, but refuses to see that his own faults are hampering his ability to do what he yearns for most. You need to stop preaching and start listening so that you can relate to the people you are trying to help and they can relate to you.

I hope someday you come to realize this and gain the success you desire.

Here is my argument towards you: Have you really tried, down to the very depths of your being, to share to all of the world around you the truths of God and Jesus Christ? Sadly, I fret that the answer is “no.” The reason for my saying this is not for the purpose of judging you, rather, it is for the purpose of allowing you to see the error of your thinking. You see, even though you do have a concern for the spreading of the truth, you limit yourself in doing so; you give yourself boundaries by not adding any of your personal experiences to your story when you express your incontrovertible belief that there is a supreme being and a holy, divine designer–God!. The problem is not that you don’t do this, the problem rather, is that you don’t do it because you fear the ridicule that you may receive from the non-believers. This is not a fear that should be crossing your mind, after all, you have Jesus on your side. If you realized the importance of spreading the word, no matter what it takes, you would understand more clearly what I am trying to say.

You see, the fact is that three people die every second. This means that one-hundred and eighty people die every minute. Now, there are sixty minutes in an hour, and there are twenty-four hours in a day. If you do the math, that relates to 259,200 people a day! How many of those people do you think are actually going to Heaven? More pertinent to this situation, however, is the question, “How many people do you think are actually going to Hell?” The answer is probably most of them, and that is truly sad. You see, most people are good people, but they still go to Hell because they didn’t give their life to the Lord. That is why I say that you, and all of us Christians, should be working harder to spread the word, for if any person goes to Hell because they never heard of Christ’s love for them, then we Christians, Gods living instruments, are failing at our purpose.

So, I beg that you sit down, whenever you have a chance, and truly think about how you can incorporate your personal accounts and experiences into your proofs of there being a God. And if you are ridiculed, all you have to do is pray about it because at least you gave the ridiculers a chance, and even though they chose damnation, you offered salvation.

Thank you for posting your article, “Sighted Faith.” I truly did appreciate it. I, too, am a Christian, and I, too, fall under the same trap of fearing ridicule when it comes to spreading the word. This post is one of my first attempts to overcome that fear, and I hope that it helps others to do the same. I am eighteen years old, and I still have a lot to learn, so Please forgive me if this reply offends anyone. I truly did appreciate the post, and I wish all of you the best. My prayers are with you, and I wish you all the best. God bless!