How Well does Your Faith Correspond to Your Daily Experience of Life?

[Akita Suggagaki]

Funny, as I wrote that question it occurred to me that it can be taken in two ways. The first way, that I had in mind, had to do with faith being corroborated by daily experience of life... Confirmed, affirmed and supported by life as lived.

The second way has to do with living our lives in conformance to our beliefs.

Perhaps they are related.

I ask the first because so many of our beliefs seem to me to be pie in the sky (ascension, second coming, miracles, Trinity, angels, last days, etc. I don't know about you but I don't experience any of that in my life in a way that is easy to identify. It s all faith. And it doesn't really affect my behavior. The aspect of my faith that affects my behavior is the morality, the self giving, the virtues. And yet all that can still be lived without the faith. Faith gives it meaning and purpose.

So a lot of the content of our faith is not very important to me. What is important to me is that there is a God. Jesus is our personal means of knowing unity with God. And he tells us to follow him.

Hmmm

 

[public hermit]

Funny, as I wrote that question it occurred to me that it can be taken in two ways. The first way, that I had in mind, had to do with faith being corroborated by daily experience of life... Confirmed, affirmed and supported by life as lived.

The second way has to do with living our lives in conformance to our beliefs.

Perhaps they are related.

I ask the first because so many of our beliefs seem to me to be pie in the sky (ascension, second coming, miracles, Trinity, angels, last days, etc. I don't know about you but I don't experience any of that in my life in a way that is easy to identify. It s all faith. And it doesn't really affect my behavior. The aspect of my faith that affects my behavior is the morality, the self giving, the virtues. And yet all that can still be lived without the faith. Faith gives it meaning and purpose.

So a lot of the content of our faith is not very important to me. What is important to me is that there is a God. Jesus is our personal means of knowing unity with God. And he tells us to follow him.

Hmmm

I don't really have faith that the morality, in terms of self-giving love and the fruit of the Spirit, is good or worth pursuing. I'm certain that is how it should be. How much my life conforms to that is tricky. I'd rather someone who knows me make that evaluation. But if I look back ten or twenty years, I've definitely grown in the right direction.

For a long time, my faith was primarily a matter of intellectual assent, and that was fine; I think most have faith that is a matter of seeing God and the world and humanity through a Christian framework/worldview. I still assent to a Christian understanding of God, the world, and humanity. But what has corroborated my faith more than anything is my experience of God through spiritual practices (simplicity, fasting, contemplative prayer, watchfulness, etc.).

I honestly wish I had started these sooner because experiencing the divine presence in a concrete and consistent way is an experience very different than just believing it is true. I think most Christians probably experience that to some extent, I had my moments, but there are practices that have been around for centuries that are very intentional and they work. And, I think those practices are making me a better person, too, perhaps. But, again, that's not really for me to say.

 

[Lukaris]

Actually I believe living by faith according to the Lord’s commandments is how we know the Trinity and everything of our faith. This is my understanding from what the Lord says in John 14:15-18 in that the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit are acting in our faith to live by the commandments. Our conscience is active in receiving & guidance for us to live by the commandments ( see 1 Timothy 1:5).

I have to confess I know this more by intellect than by necessary grace because I am deficient in living by the commandments ( I need to do a lot better in love of God & neighbor per Matthew 22:36-40 etc.).

 

[The Righterzpen]

I think the principle is true that "the rubber must meet the road" somewhere. "Faith without works is dead." James 2:20.

Yet, one's perspective of how they see themselves in comparison to God is a key factor in this equation. Various systems of doctrinal exegesis produce different conclusions. Those who believe they contribute on some level to God's work are going to see this question differently than those who believe they don't.

So how does faith correspond to my activities of daily life?

Personally, I would say that more often than not it's the presence and prodding of the Holy Spirit that brings me to do things I generally don't naturally want to do. After having been a Christian and engaging in much of the same behavior over 30 plus years; there's nothing "new and exciting" any more about my exercise of faith. My relationship to Christ is stable and peaceful; yet at the same time I agree with Solomon. This life is "vanity" (emptiness).

I have things that are still required of me. I have a house and son to take care of and I still have to go to work, wash the dishes, do laundry and cook dinner. I face the monotony of life with a somewhat stoic but a cheerfully pragmatic attitude, because complaining and being miserable doesn't gain one friends and influence people in a positive way anyways; so why waste the energy? So in the realm of practical application; I think that's the one thing that has changed the most. I have to make a choice to have a positive outlook; but make no mistake, that is a choice. It's not something that comes naturally; and I think that's true for all of us. It's part of the consequence of the fall.

What I know in the realm of theology though; I find hope and comfort in. I understand that Jesus was God incarnate. I understand why that was necessary for the atonement. I know He rose from the dead and I understand why that was necessary in the context of God creating anything in the first place. I know He's coming back and I know when that happens; this cosmos will be recreated incorruptible. No sin, no death and no potential for that evil to ever infiltrate this cosmos again. And that hope is the only thing that sustains me through the grind of the monotony of this life.

Then of what personally affects me? I have mobility issues. I was in a serious accident and had a lot of broken bones. (100 years ago, I wouldn't have survived; so thus I know I'm here for a reason. The accident was serious enough to warrant a helicopter ride to the nearest hospital that had a trauma unit.) So yes, I also live in a certain space of gratitude for the era I live in. Yet I'm looking forward to being able to run again on the other side of eternity! It's been 13 years now. I miss literally being able to physically run. The closest I can get to that level of exertion is riding a 3 wheel adaptive trike. I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia from Desert Storm and so consequently I sleep a lot too. More than I really want to. I feel like I'm constantly "behind the 8 ball" because I'm tired all the time and take my fair share of naps. So I'm forced to learn patience and perseverance and I'm looking forward to the day that I don't have those problems either.

I also have a son who has intractable epilepsy. It affects his memory, his language processing and has caused developmental issues. He's kind of like someone with dementia; except he knows he can't remember squat. And of course it affects his entire life. He can't drive, can't hold down a job, wasn't capable of attaining anything more than about a 6th grade education. So yeah, the day I stand on the new earth and he's whole for the first time in his entire existence! Would any sensible person doubt that wouldn't affect any parent?

Now as per the question about morality and virtues and helping other people?

Does what I believe affect that? Again, I say that depends on how one understands self in relation to God. If I understand myself to be a sinner who's rightly condemnable for my transgressions; The only One who can bridge that gap is God; because I'm not omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal or immortal. Even if I wasn't a sinner, I'd still be a temporal created entity with all the limitations that being a temporal created entity entails. There's no comparable value I have that would obligate God to care about me. That's why God is transcendent! I know God is love because I also know He doesn't owe me anything! And because I know He doesn't owe me anything; this is what makes the atonement so valuable. And I love God because He first loved me. I know I have no natural inclination to love him.

Now I've never seen angels, had "miraculous experiences"; for what ever someone would define those as. No burning bushes, chariots of fire, walking on water or anything like that here. Yet I firmly believe those things happened; although not because I experienced that. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen". I know it's all real because if it's not than none of it matters anyways! I know that sounds strange; but that's absolutely true. If the gospel isn't true. God isn't real, there's no heaven / new heavens and earth, no hell, or Lake of Fire; then our mere existence just... DOES NOT MATTER! Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!

That's how faith corresponds to my daily existence.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Such thoughtful responses. Thank you. They made me think about why I continue to believe and what I believe. And especially how I think the Holy Spirit has been involved in my life, my decisions, events, the unfolding of it all. Meaningless Coincidence? No. In retrospect I think I see intention beyond my own. That is my personal interpretation.

So have I or when have I experienced God? Of course an atheist can say I am only projecting that meaning onto a natural experience, like when I took a walk alone in the woods on a snowy day or sat in a quiet chapel for an hour. You can see how my experience reinforces the notion of a God who can be known in quiet stillness. That is where I think I found God. And that is my "go to" when I need encounter with the divine. Stillness and dogs. Yes, dogs. They do something special for me.

Experiencing God in and through other people is trickier. Seems like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Funny, as I wrote that question it occurred to me that it can be taken in two ways. The first way, that I had in mind, had to do with faith being corroborated by daily experience of life... Confirmed, affirmed and supported by life as lived.

The second way has to do with living our lives in conformance to our beliefs.

Perhaps they are related.

I ask the first because so many of our beliefs seem to me to be pie in the sky (ascension, second coming, miracles, Trinity, angels, last days, etc. I don't know about you but I don't experience any of that in my life in a way that is easy to identify. It s all faith. And it doesn't really affect my behavior. The aspect of my faith that affects my behavior is the morality, the self giving, the virtues. And yet all that can still be lived without the faith. Faith gives it meaning and purpose.

So a lot of the content of our faith is not very important to me. What is important to me is that there is a God. Jesus is our personal means of knowing unity with God. And he tells us to follow him.

Hmmm

As faithful believers, who love Jesus Christ of Nazareth , His Promise. He will make His Home in them through His Holy Spirit.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

When we walk in His Spirit daily, He is sure to guide our path towards truth and righteousness.

Blessings.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Another way to put it for reflection: How have you seen scripture come to life in your own experience?

Maria, there are times when I believe I actually feel that abiding. But I first must abide in the Gospels where we find the most explicit accounts of Jesus.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Funny, as I wrote that question it occurred to me that it can be taken in two ways. The first way, that I had in mind, had to do with faith being corroborated by daily experience of life... Confirmed, affirmed and supported by life as lived.

The second way has to do with living our lives in conformance to our beliefs.

Perhaps they are related.

I ask the first because so many of our beliefs seem to me to be pie in the sky (ascension, second coming, miracles, Trinity, angels, last days, etc. I don't know about you but I don't experience any of that in my life in a way that is easy to identify. It s all faith. And it doesn't really affect my behavior. The aspect of my faith that affects my behavior is the morality, the self giving, the virtues. And yet all that can still be lived without the faith. Faith gives it meaning and purpose.

So a lot of the content of our faith is not very important to me. What is important to me is that there is a God. Jesus is our personal means of knowing unity with God. And he tells us to follow him.

Hmmm

Since a lot of my daily experience involves invisible currents supplying my body with other people's emotions and thoughts, the concept of trinity becomes important.

It becomes important in my daily life in the sense of keeping an identity separate from the modalist blob of other identities that get mish mashed together as a collective.

For me, being one in the same way God is one, is preserving my unique essence in God.

 

[seeking.IAM]

To me, it is the difference between a Faith believed vs. a Faith lived. I see people who have conversion experiences without making changes in their personal behavior. They say and do the same kind of things they did before, while saying they are a Christian now. I think the essence of being born again is becoming a new creation in Christ and living as an obedient disciple. It requires change, intentionality, and turning away from former things.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Funny, as I wrote that question it occurred to me that it can be taken in two ways. The first way, that I had in mind, had to do with faith being corroborated by daily experience of life... Confirmed, affirmed and supported by life as lived.

The second way has to do with living our lives in conformance to our beliefs.

Perhaps they are related.

I ask the first because so many of our beliefs seem to me to be pie in the sky (ascension, second coming, miracles, Trinity, angels, last days, etc. I don't know about you but I don't experience any of that in my life in a way that is easy to identify. It s all faith. And it doesn't really affect my behavior. The aspect of my faith that affects my behavior is the morality, the self giving, the virtues. And yet all that can still be lived without the faith. Faith gives it meaning and purpose.

So a lot of the content of our faith is not very important to me. What is important to me is that there is a God. Jesus is our personal means of knowing unity with God. And he tells us to follow him.

Hmmm

As an existentialist, I can't really say since I can't "prove" all that much from the Bible, and the Theory of Evolution basically does nothing more for me but leave me hanging out in the winds of meaningless change.

I will say that I wake up each day and find myself enmeshed in a world that has sold its soul to one side of politics or another and seeks to influence me for the sake of its control in all manner of ways, whether directly or indirectly (e.g. think about all of those pharmaceutical commercials with the fake acting and the terrible musical jingles of "justification" prompting us to buy and use their multi-billion dollar antidotes to the worlds maladies).

All in all, most days feel psychologically rather "beastly." All in all, it's rather tiring.

Frankly, I find it nearly impossible to perceive that I have much comradery with most other people since they, more often than not, dismiss me out of hand with the utmost of their own individual brands of anti-intellectual, uni-lateral fervor, all the while demanding that I 'man up' and conform to their view of the world-------------and I mean for this critical evaluation of mine to refer to folks on both the Left and the Right, people inhabiting positions of politics and ethos on either of the dominant, competing sides for which I have a very difficult time seeing Jesus ever fully subscribing to.

That's my lens of "faith"; that's my life experience.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

But what has corroborated my faith more than anything is my experience of God through spiritual practices (simplicity, fasting, contemplative prayer, watchfulness, etc.).

Yes, as I already mentioned, time alone in nature, and if I cannot have that , at least time alone in quiet. But all that is wordless. It is then a non verbal faith that seems to go to the deepest part of me. And that seem most real to me.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I have to confess I know this more by intellect than by necessary grace because I am deficient in living by the commandments ( I need to do a lot better in love of God & neighbor per Matthew 22:36-40 etc.).

As I discovered while writing my own first post, I have come to believe that living those commandments is the key to experiencing what we hold as articles of our faith. But it is an unending journey with setbacks and progress.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

If the gospel isn't true. God isn't real, there's no heaven / new heavens and earth, no hell, or Lake of Fire; then our mere existence just... DOES NOT MATTER!

I like the way 2philovoide put it, we are left "hanging out in the winds of meaningless change."

And so we go back to the Gospel and I ask myself , "How have i seen the Gospel come alive in my life experience?'

i don't have an answer yet. But I intend to ponder that today and work on my journel.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

When we walk in His Spirit daily, He is sure to guide our path towards truth and righteousness.

This is where I think our Christian faith touches upon mindfulness... or Nepsis, the vigilance of walking in the spirit daily. It takes constant attentiveness in daily life. That is how faith intersects with life experience. But we have to be paying attention.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Since a lot of my daily experience involves invisible currents supplying my body with other people's emotions and thoughts, the concept of trinity becomes important.

It becomes important in my daily life in the sense of keeping an identity separate from the modalist blob of other identities that get mish mashed together as a collective.

For me, being one in the same way God is one, is preserving my unique essence in God.

I have bene pondering identity lately. I am not the person I intended to be as a young man career or familywise. Who then am I?

I remind myself that my unique identity is in God and maybe will always be a bit of a mystery in this life. And I guess also a creative process that is up tp me...finding myself in God.

Just this morning I found an old book on my shelf, Ascent to Truth by Thomas Merton. It deals with St John of the Cross and mystical theology. I am hoping it will be helpful.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I think the essence of being born again is becoming a new creation in Christ and living as an obedient disciple. It requires change, intentionality, and turning away from former things.

It takes discipline, and I mean for real. Quite often we can make pious statements and prayers that might help us to feel good about ourselves. But they can be fantasies. the real work, the real cross, the real transformation is the change in our being and change in our behaviors as well las attitudes.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Frankly, I find it nearly impossible to perceive that I have much comradery with most other people since they, more often than not, dismiss me out of hand...

I certainly do not dismiss you, 2PhiloVoid. in fact I thought your post was something that could be put to music (perhaps King Crimson

I acknowledge that I feel out of place, neither side anywhere. perhaps that s related to my current search for identity. Image that, searching for identity at 68 years old.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I certainly do not dismiss up, 2PhiloVoid. in fact I though you post was something that could be put to music (perhaps King Crimson

I acknowledge that I feel out of place, neither side anywhere. perhaps that s related to my current search for identity. Image that, searching for identity at 68 years old.

Thanks for the spelling correction. And thanks for being understanding.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Thanks for the spelling correction. And thanks for being understanding.

I have been listening to Greg Lake lately. Seems to fit

I carry the dust of a journey
That cannot be shaken away
It lives deep within me
For I breathed it every day

You and I are yesterday's answers
The earth of the past turned to flesh
Eroded by time's rivers
To the shapes we now possess

Come share of my breath and my substance
And mingle our streams and our times
In that infinite moment
Our reasons are lost in our rhymes