The word faith is a complicated word.

By definition, faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

As humans, we put our faith in many people and things. We have faith that the physical world exists. We have faith that we are our own agents and that we are in charge of our destinies. We have faith in the goodness of humanity. We so often believe it will prevail in the end, the good will win out over evil. We put faith in our mechanical creations. We have faith that the stoplights will work properly, or that our alarm clocks will go off in the morning so we can get to work on time.

There is religious faith, which demands that an individual must be faithful and loyal to God, and have confidence and trust in God’s abilities. For these people it is the duty of the faithful to trust God. Religious faith is not always based on visible evidence or proof. Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version) says:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

In normal usage, faith means that we believe something is probably true, even though we have not directly experienced it and have no real proof of it. This makes faith a thing of intellect, not experience.

I believe that faith is a trust in my own inner knowledge about what I believe about my true nature. For me, my true nature is that which is made up of essence. We often call this the soul, or our higher self. It is not the conscious mind. It is an essence which gives us direct access to harness the infinite powers of the universe.

The main idea here is that there is a power in the universe that created you and everything else. When we limit ourselves to human consciousness we notice our imperfections and prevent ourselves from realizing our infinite possibilities. The human consciousness wants to remain here on earth. When we step out of linear thinking into faith, we start to trust our inner voice or knowing.

All of us take a lot of things on faith without even realizing we do it. Some claim that faith is for the paranoid, the superstitious and the fearful. Well, I say to them that faith is necessary to the human experience. The people who reject all forms of faith are only fooling themselves.

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have faith.” ~ Paulo Coelho

What separates us from other animals is not only our knowledge, but our faith. I will leave you with this:

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Here’s to the dawn.

My name is Linda Pecone. I have been a freelance writer for 15 years. I live in a small town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with my husband and have written for our small town paper on and off over the years. I have also raised three children in my little town. They are my greatest joys. I majored in English studies in college because reading and writing have been my passion since I learned to do them both.

 

~

Ed. Caroline Scherer

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