What is faith?

Well I haven't been posting in what has been years....but I decided I needed a spiritual outlet as I study the scriptures and grow in Christ. Something that I have been grappling with lately is becoming fearless or basically ridding yourself of fear and discouragement in one's daily life. I realize now that this is a result of faith in God and the transformation that takes place between your soul and the Holy Spirit. So what is faith? Is faith superstitious? Is it something you perform? Is it actions? Well faith may sound like all those things but it really is just one idea and that is trust. Faith=Trust, period. When you want someone to do a job for you, you ask them which is trusting them. It doesn't matter how they do that job or when they do it, you know they will do it so you place your Faith in them. That is precisely what makes one's faith in God so real. If you have faith in God to do something for you or someone else, it doesn't matter when or how your petition is going to happen, you trust Him to come through for you. For example, I have faith that my cell phone receives text messages and phone calls. How do I know this? because I hear my phone vibrate and then I check it and it says I have a text message or that someone is calling me. That's faith, I trust my phone does what it should because I receive texts and calls. So that brings up another point. Is faith active? The answer is yes. Faith is action. You trust people by their actions and how they perform for you. So what's the difference between trusting people and trusting God? Well its simple really, what the inherent traits of people and the traits of God? Obviously through the fall people are naturally sinful, so people = evil. And by looking through the Word, one can understand that God = love, life, truth, and various other ideas. You see, what you believe about God is what will determine your faith in Him. If God is love, then you trust that God loves you all the time. If you believe that God is good, then God never sends evil in your direction. You see when you change your views about God and make your own ideas about Him that are contrary to the Bible, then you put God in a box and create a God that is limited. But if trust Him at His Word, then God is limitless and do anything that you've ever imagined. And that is when you become fearless....When you trust that your God is limitless. One of my favorite stories about the Bible is when Abraham is tested by God. Abraham is promised by God that he will have at least one son from his wife Sarah and that son is to be the chosen one that will be a part of something special. However, one day God comes to Abraham and says "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." You see God knew that Abraham loved his son, that he was emotionally attached to him, that he would rather die than let his son die. But God wanted to show us, another side of the story. So Abraham did what God said, prepared everything, tied up his son, and was about to kill him when an angel appears and says "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Hmmm interesting. So God basically tells Abraham "you did what I asked so that means you trust Me. Thanks." But where did Abraham get this power from? Well when we read Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, one might come across this passage: "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." Abraham believed in a limitless God, that God could do anything He wanted, whenever He wanted and so his son was saved. Abraham Trusted that God could do whatever He wanted in the blink of an eye, and that's why the angel said "now I know that you fear (trust) God." What about you? Do you believe in a limited or limitless god? Do you think that you need to have control of the situations of life, so you box up God and say "ok I'll open you when I need you." Think carefully about how God is talking to you and remember that a God without limits means miracles can happen, lives can be changed, souls saved, people can become fearless, it all depends on how much you trust in your God.