Faith, Gods will, or both?
601086
Angela h,\n\nThat is a difficult question. People die every day and many of them are Christian. It is obviously to our advantage to believe in healing as we do, but we will all die and some of us will die sick.\n\nI believe in healing. I have been healed many, many times. However, My eyesight has degraded with age, and I have not been healed. I have a good friend who is believing God to heal her vision. She believes that she can have good vision just like Moses had good vision until he died at 120 years old. She hasn’t received 20/20 vision yet, but she was healed of cancer last year.\n\nThe Bible clearly teaches healing, and Jesus very clearly revealed God’s will for us to be healed with all the people that He healed during His ministry.\n\nPart of your question relates to commanding God to do things through prayer. We almost do command God to do what He wants to do anyway. God has revealed His will relating to many things that we pray for regularly. So when we pray, we remind Him of His promises, and it is guaranteed that we will get what we asked for.\n\nIn my humble opinion, the greatest hindrance to prayer is praying selfishly. God’s Kingdom works by humility – which is faith and obedience – motivated by love. When our motive is wrong, we are not guaranteed a favorable answer. God is SO merciful that sometimes He answers our prayers even though we ask incorrectly. He especially answers prayers like this for new believers.\n\nWhat causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3\n\nYou also asked about faith. Faith doesn’t vacillate. Faith doesn’t change its mind.\n\nIf any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. James 1:5-8\n\nGeorge Mueller was a man of great faith who kept a diary of his prayers and God’s answers. God never failed to answer a prayer that he prayed. He said, “The most important part of prayer is the 15 minutes after you say, ‘Amen.‘” What he meant was that people may pray with faith, but they often tear down their prayer with words of doubt within a very short time after they pray.\n\nPersistence is important sometimes. Also hearing God speak to you or reading promises from the Bible can encourage your faith. Prayer is simple, but sometimes we try to make the things of God complicated. Let me give you one last quote from, “Why Revival Tarries” by Leonard Ravenhill.\n\n“One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God and read it and believe it.  The rest of us will be embarrassed.  We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a book to be explained, whereas first and foremost, it is a Book to be believed – and after that to be obeyed.”\n\nGod bless.
925663
There are some interesting verses in the bible.  God says these things:  "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will harden the hearts of those also whom I choose".  God also likens Himself to a potter, and we are the clay.  He speaks of how He, as God...has the right to choose what to do with that clay.  I don't know why certain people are found of God and certain others are not.  But there is one thing I believe with all my heart:  that God is perfectly just, righteous and holy.  So I do not give up my faith in Him for those things I do not understand.
445739
No. Absolutely not. The fact that I have a strong faith is a personal decision. What anyone else chooses to believe in is entirely up to them, and I do respect that. I wouldn't be living the way my faith requires if I were to push it onto someone else. I respect their beliefs the same way that I would want someone to respect mine. (Lutheran)
358651
Everything that is , has been or will be , is in his perfect will. We can not understand God's perfect will as long as our knwoledge is veiled. For God works even that which is evil for good to those that diligently seek him and abide by his precepts. If your search is to find flaw and imperfection you will arrive soon, if your search is for is glory, both you and I have a long way to get there and we will certainly not accomplish it until that which is perfect returns.
146469
Faith is not something that can be easily explained, it is just something you know. The Bible says that faith is the belief in things not seen. I believe in air, I can't see it but sometimes I feel it. It is faith that makes me believe the air is still there even when the wind isn't blowing. God is like that. You can't see Him, but if you pay close attention you can feel Him sometimes.  It is faith that lets you believe that He is there even when you don't feel Him.
1155590
No one can say for sure, for proving Gods existence would remove the need for faith. Without faith God does not exist.\nThe concept of Gods was created by every culture independent of each other. Can the whole of humanity be wrong?
186061
:i\ndefined knowledge , trust , belief without emperical tangable evidence\nHeb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.\n\nmore coming .... need time to write\n\nI have always had difficulty just trusting. I like and believe in logic and empirical evidence. Intuition, emotional decisions and insight all meant error to me. \n That was the case until a very close loved one was on her death bed, the doctors told me there was little hope, there remained only a prayer for a peaceful passing. Unable to pray for that I prayed for recovery. Hours later I felt a kind of peace and a feeling she would recover. She is with me now. In that prayer I prayed if he would grant that prayer I would trust all he said or did forever.\n It still did not come easy but with each experience of his faithfulness, and as I read scripture and stories of his faithfulness to the Israelites, my own faith grew stronger\n\nAs for the last part of your question, the object of the faith is the only thing which is important. His faithfulness is what gives faith it’s evidence
1073203
Read Genesis 1:26-27.  If you look around you you know that God must exist. Faith means to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true.
1050808
I believe that God does know the future. As for why He does things, we may not understand them. But, they are all within His plan.
158623
I think that God's teachings tell you what is right and if you truly follow the heart of say the 10 commandments, and love everybody, you will choose to do what is right. Your conscience is God's gift to us to help us in our free will. People will always be tested and will not always pass their tests with the "best" answer or response. Your belief in God and your faith is a matter between you and God. The outward appearances that people put forth are a reflection of what they want other people to think, and cannot accurately show what is in somebody's heart. That is between a person and God. You can live a good life and lose it all in the last breath, or live a terrible life and realize Faith at the last moment. Who are we to judge people's characters?
518363
Having faith and just having knowledge.
594844
OK here's my view.  I think that religion should have no bearing on love whatsoever.  How can you honestly prove god exists to someone who doesn't believe.  While were at it How can you prove he exists at all?  Maybe hes a being, a Greek god, or maybe there isn't one.  My point is faith is a personal belief, NOT a burden.  Why should you let it come between something so beautiful as love.  Let each person have their own beliefs and let the other do as they wish.  Love may only come so often.  Don't miss it because of something like that, SEIZE IT.  Would you base a relationship off of political preferences, Hell no.  So don't make the same mistake.  Not angry just explaining! :-)
805623
No, faith is not enough.  James 2:17 says "thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself. "
1126587
Why would the Bible tell us to pray for wisdom and then not have us apply it?  What is free will if there are no consequences for our choices?\n\nBesides, there's a fine line between faith and presumption.\n\nSometimes God has asked people to do things that seemed downright foolish.  It stretches your faith.  Everyone who loves you will come with their "concern" and "reasoning."  But at the eleventh hour, God comes through.\n\nOther times, people assume God is asking them to do something when He has done no such thing.  Or, in other words, they presume upon Him and put themselves in bad situations and tight spots.\n\nI've done both.
238176
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6\nFrom this passage it is clear that faith is a key element in pleasing GOD. The believing and seeking, are a big part of it also. The bottom line is in our willing choice of GOD above everything else. that is the begining of obedience.\nMatt.\n\nP.S. For more on this see my sights.
547788
well, faith is all about being able to believe in something without physical proof of it existing. logically, that doesnt make sense. but, thats what faith is about. anyone can have faith in something when its right in front of you with the answers spelled out. but to be realistic, the bible doesnt explain everything. and it contradicts what we know is scientifically proven. but thats just it, you've independantly thought about this, and questioned it, you obviously werent brainwashed into anything. and if you want to believe in it, it sounds like you're ready. if you decide not to, thats cool too. i can understand that.\n\nto me, faith is about saying "i believe theres more to existence than what we understand right now".
767986
Nobody knows for sure.  My opinion is that if there is a God then he would judge us on our actions and our character and not on something as unimportant as blind faith.\n\nBut, truth to tell, there are a whole truck load of folks out there who think I am crazy for believing that.\n\nIn the end - you have to decide for yourself.\n\na