Confused about finding faith.

[Mister_Al]

God does give us all faith. Then He lets us use that faith to believe in what we want. I doubt that God will force anybody to believe in something against their will, but I believe that He will allow us to see the truth about something so we can make up our own minds about it.


Alan

 

[SavedbyGod12]

I have read in the bible and on this forum that God gives faith and it is not something one can acquire any other way. However, if a person does not believe in God the bible teaches they have been given many chances to accept Christ as their saviour and thus deserve to be punished. Surely if only God can give faith it is not the person's fault they were not blessed with it. God chose not to.
I'm a new Christian and this really confuses me. I don't see how the two ideas co-exist. Sorry for my ignorance and thank you for taking the time to read this.

"Lean not to thy own understanding"

This has saved my mind from fruitless toil.

Might save yours.

 

[DoctorJosh]

I have read in the bible and on this forum that God gives faith and it is not something one can acquire any other way. However, if a person does not believe in God the bible teaches they have been given many chances to accept Christ as their saviour and thus deserve to be punished. Surely if only God can give faith it is not the person's fault they were not blessed with it. God chose not to.
I'm a new Christian and this really confuses me. I don't see how the two ideas co-exist. Sorry for my ignorance and thank you for taking the time to read this.

So sad others are confusing you about Faith, I want to ask those others in this forum: (Not directed towards you, but those others who say Faith comes from God.)
Where in the Bible does is say God can only give you Faith???? Faith comes from you only. Faith is believing and Trust put together. Faith comes from you, it is not given from God. You are the one who believes and Trusts. Who ever keeps saying Faith comes from God is truly confused and I want to make sure those who read this understand Faith can only come from you, the reader, the believer, that you believe and Trust God and this is Faith.

Ok, so now back to your post. To find Faith, which is belief and Trust in God, this comes through learning about God through the Word (the Bible). God Loves us and wants so much for us to find Him and Trust Him, so our Journey to know God is all the process of a relationship with God. We begin to understand God, then we Believe in God and we begin to Trust God. It is like any other relationship, it takes knowing the other to Love them and Trust them. When we get to that point of knowing who God is, we Believe in God, we then Trust in God and we have Faith.

 

[Wells Marsh]

Dear JoJo,

God is not willing that any should perish. He will move heaven and earth to ensure that we all have the opportunity to join Him in heaven. God does not believe that any of us deserve to be condemned to Hell. God created Hell for Satan and his fellow fallen angels (demons). God is grieved at the thought of any of us joining Satan in Hell.

However, each individual has been given free will. So each individual must accept or reject Jesus.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Blessings,
WM

 

[singpeace]

Jo Jo,

God has placed within every man and woman the knowledge of His existence.

Put an atheist on an airplane that's going to crash, and he won't be an atheist much longer; he'll be yelling for Jesus like everyone else... unless he has hardened his heart to the point that even at death, pride has become too precious to him to ever admit he had been in need of a Savior.

That's where one can lose all hope of salvation. Every time a sinner is 'given a chance' at faith, he is really having his heart-strings tugged by the Holy Spirit. This 'tugging' is a supernatural act. It is conviction. Most of us resist the Holy Spirit at first... and unless we are quick to believe and receive Christ as our Lord, we all get many opportunities before we die.

I firmly believe that if a person dies a lost sinner, it was not because God never 'gave that person faith', but because by the time his heart was being tugged on for the last time, he knows without a doubt it is real; that God is real and Jesus is real. He has become so hard with pride that he is willing to reject Christ again, and this time without feeling any guilt. I believe this last moment of conviction is the most powerful conviction of a person's life... so strong that there can be no doubt whatsoever of the person's choice.