Often we are told that faith and reason are mutually exclusive. The word “faith,” in western vernacular, has come to mean believing something in the absence of proof or evidence. It has the sense of an arbitrary, unfounded, impulsive decision, like grasping at straws. Faith is considered by many to be a position of weakness or passivity, and escape from reality. This does not line up with Scripture’s definition of faith. Faith is active, bold, aggressive, fearless, well-founded, and imminently reasonable. Faith is reason in its highest form. Faith is logic at its purest.
Think of faith as a spiritual organ through which you receive and use spiritual resources. In the earth-realm, for example, your eyes are the organ through which you receive light. Light is pressing in around you, but your eyes have to be open to receive it. Your lungs are the organ through which you receive oxygen. Oxygen is pressing in around you, but your lungs have to function in order to take it in. The spirit-resources of heaven are available and pressing in around you, but you must live by faith in order to receive and use them.
You already have access to the eternal resources of God—the spiritual aspects of reality. Faith is how you take them into your life and use them. God's promises are not for someday. They're for today. Faith is not looking forward to a future so much as it is living fully supplied in the present.
The perfecting and finishing of our faith is accomplished through difficulties and challenges of life. As we face challenges, it trains us in the ways of faith, it trains us to keep our focus on the reality instead of the shadow, and it circumcises all the flesh out of the vision God has given us. Like muscles in the physical body, faith grows by resistance training—by being forced to do heavy lifting.
This content taken from the book Fueled by Faith by Jennifer Kennedy Dean
