5th October 2024

We all have faith in something or someone. We put our faith in the systems of our society that keep things running. If we didn’t, we’d all go live in the woods, off the grid, away from everything and everyone. We trust other people to help us when we have needs we can’t take care of ourselves. We have faith that there will be electricity and food in the stores. We even trust in ourselves, that we are self-sufficient and able to live on our own. 

Everyone has faith of some kind, in something. As Donald Fairbairn says, ‘Conversion to Christianity is not so much a process of gaining faith where one had none before as it is a process of transferring one’s trust from whatever or whomever one was trusting previously to Christ alone.’¹ We all have to go through the process of learning to trust him alone and letting go of trust in everything else. 

We live by the faith of Jesus, the faith he shares with us, but as Dallas Willard said, grace is opposed to earning, but it’s not opposed to effort. Our effort involves recognising when we are putting too much trust and faith in anything or anyone that’s not Jesus. Jesus is the only one worthy of our trust and faith. His faith is ours – let’s grab it, hold on to it and do our best to trust only in him.

¹ Donald Fairbairn Life in the Trinity, p. 188.

First published on 18 September 2024, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

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