I'm finally getting the hang of navigating the threads. I haven't answered your reply earlier because I was wanting to get my facts right before I responded.
I went to my Strong's Concordance to make sure what I thought faith and understanding are, were correct. Faith comes from the Greek word "pistis", which came from the root word, "peitho". Pistis is a noun meaning persuasion, ie credence, conviction. This wasn't clear to me, so I went to the verb, peitho, which it is derived from. Peitho means to convince, to pacify or conciliate, to evidence or authority, to rely (by inward consistency)--agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be confident, make fried, obey, persuade, trust, yield.
I then went back and read all of Hebrews 11 and noticed that all the examples that were given had actions attached. I surmised that this was probably what James meant when he said that faith without works is dead. I decided to see what Jesus said about faith. I only went into Matthew. In Matt 6:30 ..."will He not clothe you of little faith?" In Matt 8:10 He said, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel." In Matt 9:29 He said, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." From Jesus' words there are degrees of faith. I surmise from this that I can have faith if I am believe that I can trust God--it may not be a great faith, but nevertheless it is faith.
After doing this, I went back to my Strong's Concordance again to study understand. Understand comes from the Hebrew word sakal which means to be circumspect and hence intelligence. I really wasn't sure what being circumspect was so I went to my Webster Dictionary and it said that it meant attentive to all circumstances of a case or the probable consequence of an action, cautious, prudent, wary.
Your quote from Jeremiah cannot be fully understood without also reading verse 23. Your version of the Bible translates the key word "glory", mine translates it "boast". Jeremiah was telling the wise man not to boast in being wise, the mighty man not to boast in being mighty, the rich man not to boast in being rich, but if they must boast then boast that they understand and know God. Boasting is a sign of pride. In this verse Jeremiah states only three things that God delights in, but there are also many more things that God delights in. This constitutes only partial understanding of God.
In my first reply, I stated that I had faith and I still believe that I did. I always knew that if I needed help or someone to listen to me I could trust God. Looking back on what my research shows, it certainly shows that I did NOT have a full understanding of God or I never would have put the things of the world before Him. When I returned to God, I thought that I was the seed that fell to the side and the thistles (cares of the world) overtook, but God made it very clear that I was the seed that had no roots. He has emphasized that without solid roots I cannot survive as a Christian.
I hope this makes clear where I am coming from in my perception of faith and understanding, and maybe we can agree to just disagree and let God decide. After all, the perceptions we have are derived from the baggage we carry from generational curses (even to the third and fourth generations), and life situations; and each of us are unique. I believe we will be judged in our uniqueness, because I read somewhere in the Bible, we will all be judged by what we believe. I can agree that little faith has little understanding and great faith and great faith has great understanding, but I still believe that we as finite beings cannot understand an infinite God until we see Him face to face.
Yours in Christ,
Thelma
