“When we separate faith from everything else, we make it into belief. It becomes the assent to the truth of something that cannot be proven by empirical evidence. The Book of James addresses this mistaken thought directly when it says, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (OSB James 2:24)… Paul speaks of “faith active” in love. This poignant phrase indicates that Paul would agree with James, who wrote against the idea of “faith alone.” He insisted, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).…true faith is “active.” The word in Greek means “to energize” or “to work in” (Strong’s #1754). But what is “work.” Work is the energy transferred when a force moves something over a distance. This definition goes along with the sense that love activates faith. Love puts faith to work, transferring the energy of conviction into active caring. Thus, in a sense, love actualizes and implements faith so that it does “work.” Thus, the apostle says of Abraham, “You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected (James 2:22).” (Fr. Basil)
“No person can earn justification by works of righteousness, for justification is the gift of God given to those who respond to the gospel with faith. God also helps those who cooperate with His grace to become righteous. Saving faith is not mere belief but a commitment to Christ that is manifested by works of righteousness…” (Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese)
“Those who profess to be Christ’s will be recognized by their actions. For what matters is not a momentary act of professing, but being persistently motivated by faith….True Christian faith does not consist of a gnostic, inward change detached from our outward behavior. Rather, our faith generates an inner transformation, a sober evaluation of ourselves, and tangible efforts at living a life worthy of our calling in Christ (Eph 4:1).” (St. Ignatius, Dynamis 8/7/2021)
“If you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make the sign of the Cross and say: ‘In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ Faith comes not through pondering but through actions.” (Tito Colliander)
“…faith changes the heart…faith reconfigures behavior…faith in the living God re-orders the entire personality…Therefore, [Jesus] did not wish to separate faith from work, but he said that faith itself is a work. For this is the faith that works by love.” (Dynamis 4/14/2021, St. Augustine)
“It may be easy to think that we have devoted ourselves to the Lord quite well when we believe that we are getting what we want from religion. Perhaps we attribute the happiness of our marriages and families to our faith. Maybe we see our physical health, financial success, or good reputation among our peers as a reward for our dedication to God. Of course, all the good things of this life are God’s blessings and we should be grateful for them. We must be on guard, however, against the subtle temptation of thinking that entrusting ourselves to Christ leads to this or that positive result in the world. It is so easy to view devotion to the Lord as a means to serving our own ends…Any of the blessings of this life can disappear in an instant and the same is true of a faith based on the belief that God should give us what we want on our own terms.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“…the Apostle Paul reviews for us what it means to “live by faith” (vs. 38). “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1). It is the essence of our hope, even though it cannot be proven by means of our physical senses. If we touch, taste, see, hear, and smell what we hope for, we have information, but not faith.” (Dynamis 1/28/2021)
“To believe into Christ is not only to receive Him into us, but also to be joined to Him, the One into whom we have believed. Our believing into Him is our entering into Him. To illustrate this, think of a swimming pool. You can walk around the edge, looking at the water. You can see it’s a real pool, with real water. This is believing in the pool. But when you dive into the pool, you get into the water and are covered and surrounded by it. You’re no longer just looking at the pool, thinking about how pleasant the water seems. You’re in the water, enjoying its coolness and freshness by swimming in it! Objective facts are important, but the Bible reveals something deeper concerning the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. He doesn’t want us merely to believe in Him objectively, acknowledging His existence. Instead, His Word reveals that by our believing into Christ, we enter into Christ. As a result, we’re joined to Him, and we can enjoy His Person as the rich supply for our Christian life!” (Witness Lee)
“No one wakes up and decides that today I will abandon my faith and forfeit all the qualities of the spiritual life that go with it. Yes, fear and duress may induce us to give up our faith. But typically, we lose our grasp of them through neglect. It is more a matter of erosion than of sudden collapse. Gradually as we face the little challenges of life without turning to God our unused faith becomes weak. But if we face whatever comes to us throughout the day with firm confidence in God, then our faith becomes stronger day by day. And by treating the minor troubles in life with trust in God, we prepare ourselves for the major ordeals when they come.” (Fr. Basil)
“When our faith in God is weak or under assault, we would do well to recall the apostle’s clear declaration that faith does not come to us primarily through our own efforts, but rather as a gift from God (2 Peter 1:1). Our attraction to the Lord Jesus and His teachings, the Church, the Holy Scriptures, and the saints awakens in us when the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and souls. No clenching of our fists is needed to deepen our convictions, nor do we require mighty efforts to still our inner doubts, nor a diligent ascetical regimen. None of these efforts, alone, will give us precious faith (vs. 1) unless God acts. Faith, like life itself and the air we breathe, is God’s gift. By all means, let us ask for that precious gift!” (Dynamis 2/19/2021)
“Our culture has reduced Christian believing to a set of rational propositions. The various doctrines can be described, defined, repeated, even rendered in Latin. But almost nowhere do we bother to think about how we believe those propositions. We can answer the question, “Do you believe in the Incarnation?” But we never bother to ask, “What does it look like to believe the Incarnation?” This disconnect leads to tragic, even paralyzing versions of Christianity.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Faith is less concerned with belief, doctrine, and dogmatic teaching than it is with trusting in Christ…Real faith is faith which is manifest and active.” (OCPM 2/9/2016, St. Maximos the Confessor)
“Trusting God trumps understanding God. The train will have long left the station and left us on the platform if we determine to ride only with full understanding. Life will have passed us by. I’m choosing to trust the conductor and the track He’s laid down for me.” (Terry Esau)
“Knowledge is given to us by faith, that is to say, by our participatory adherence to the presence of Him Who reveals Himself. Faith is therefore not a psychological attitude, a mere fidelity. It is an ontological relationship between man and God, an internally objective relationship…” (Vladimir Lossky)
“Faith is a perception and communion, which means that there is actually something (someone) to be perceived and with which to have communion. Faith is not an action reserved to some portion of our mind – it does not take place within us. It is a perception that is true communion.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The act of faith is unlike any other in human experience. It is unlike, but in a way connected to, the act of sensing by which we perceive the world around us. It is a “seeing” of that which is invisible, yet faith still begins in the senses, by hearing the testimony of another who has heard God’s word.” (Bishop John Michael Botean)
“Our faith is indeed personal, but it is not private. And there is nothing more personal than when persons are in communion with one another…Our Christian faith cannot be lived in a vacuum, for our personal transformation requires working out our salvation within community.” (Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, Abbott Tryphon)
“Without faith, without deep faith, we sell out to self-serving truths and cultural lies. We need to hear the Gospel fully. We need to move beyond group lies or ideology disguised as religion.” (Father John Zeyack)
“However, we must take care that we do not confuse the fullness of faith with acquiring information “about” the faith. Rather, we are to work at living “in the way of the Lord” (Acts 18: 25), for as Christ reminds us, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). (Dynamis
5/20/2015)
“Sometimes it is hard to really know how deep our faith is, how deeply we trust God or not, until we face trials. We may not want trials but they are usually actually good for us....trials reveal where our hearts are. They are food for faith, which must grow or die.” (Sacramental Living Blog, Orthodox Study Bible James 1:2)
“Within every human is a desire for God. We sometimes attempt to satisfy this hunger by practicing a religion, by having faith in something. Atheism, in all its railings against God, also has intrinsic beliefs, dogmas, and tenets that supposedly can’t be challenged. It is itself a belief system with all the markings of a religion. Atheism as a religion (a set of beliefs) is just as intolerant and closed-minded as the claims made against any faith system it assails…Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.” (Rice Broocks, C.S. Lewis)
“Even skeptics have faith. They have faith that skepticism is true. Likewise, agnostics have faith that agnosticism is true. There are no neutral positions when it comes to beliefs." (Norman Geisler, Frank Turek, and David Limbaugh)
“We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief [in God] nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?” (C.S. Lewis)
“True belief is not a mere nod of approval to a set of ideas, but conviction acted upon, which shapes our lives and informs our choices…Doubts, as well as beliefs, are born from our thoughts, while faith and knowing are conceived in our hearts.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, Father David L. Fontes, PsyD)
"The Christian faith is not just a set of beliefs, but a whole new way of seeing things, enabling us to see things as they really are." (RZIM Canada@rzimcanad)
“Reason alone will never bring us to God. Rather, we confess that we are finite; He is infinite. Thus we come to him by faith.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Isaiah 55:8-9)
“Human rationality alone will never penetrate the workings of God.” (Dynamis 1/14/10)
“God wants our trust and faith, even while we ponder and wonder about so many maters mysterious to us…Faith is reasonable, though reason alone cannot explain the whole of it. So use your mind to think things through. But leave room for the unexplainable works of God.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 21:18,19)
“Clearly to go to Church and worship without knowing anything about what the Church stands for and believes is a nearly fruitless exercise…But study without worship is perhaps more insidiously dangerous because you can deceive yourself that you are “all about God” when in fact you are really all about “the study of God.” (Sacramental Living)
“To truly know about God you have to live the Christian faith. Christianity is something to be experienced more than something to be learned. I can’t emphasize this enough. I don’t think anyone can truly understand Christianity unless they experience it because it goes beyond the limits of our intellect… This made the most sense to me after my daughter was born and I began to raise her. Before I had her, I thought I knew what it would be like to love a child, care for a child, and meet the demands of a child. And I did intellectually understand this at some level. But it was not until I actually had her and experienced her did I begin to truly understand what it was like to love and care for a child, and to express the depth of that love in words is almost impossible.” (Sacramental Living)
“Our doubts and worries rob us of so much. They make the small shadows on the wall into huge phantasms about to swallow us whole. But the truth is that much of what we fear are either illusions or are realities that are not as terrible as we imagine…Too often we live not in the present but in the past or a feared future. If our eyes were truly open, we would see that our world is not as dark as we think it.” (Anne Marie Gazzolo)
“God always gives us strength to do what He has commanded. This strength may not be evident until we step out in faith and actually begin doing the task.” (Life Application Study Bible, 2 Timothy 4:17)
“What proceeds out of the mouth flows from the heart, for sooner or later our tongue will reveal the quality of our faith in God.” (Orthodox Study Bible, James 1:26, 27)
“…true faith always results in a changed life and good deeds…True faith involves a commitment of your whole self to God.” (Life Application Study Bible, James 2:18)
“Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.” (C.S. Lewis)
“We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief [in God] nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?” (C.S. Lewis)
“Commitment is an essential part of faith…you must commit your mind and heart to Christ…Right actions are the natural by-products of truth faith…Faith without god deeds doesn’t do anybody any good – it is useless.” (Life Application Study Bible, James 2:1)
“We may find words of faith come easily, but deep appreciation for Christ comes with living faith.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 1:35)
“…fear of God can to lead to a fearless life…When we trust God completely to take care of us, we will find that our other fears – even of death itself – will subside.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalm 112:7,8)
“…grace is uncreated and infinite, whereas our faith is limited and can grow; good works flow out of authentic faith…We are not saved by good works, but for good works.” (Orthodox Study Bible Ephesians 2:8-10)
“Neither verbal confessions nor sacramental experiences avail anything unless we do the works of faith.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Luke 13:25-27)
“Lack of trust in God always prevents us from receiving His best.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 3:15-19)
“There must be balance in life between our actions and our faith in God…We should use our minds and resources to obey God, while at the same time trusting God for the outcome.” (Life Application Study Bible, 2 Samuel 10:6)
“…remember that faith is only partly a matter of mind and emotions. Mostly it is complying, even if we do not understand or if we have doubts, or even if we do not especially wish to do what the Lord asks. Faith definitely entails risks and uncertainty.” (Dynamis 12/29/12)
“To step out brings us nearer God and to true joy, but God goes with us as we journey. He is both in the midst of the struggle and waits on the other side.” (Dynamis 12/29/12)
“I have heard some people say essentially “I have to see it to believe it.” That’s their litmus test for God. They say if they saw visual evidence such as a miracle then they would believe. In my opinion, the existence of the world around us and the universe are evidence enough and I think people who believe they need more proof are engaging in self-deception.” (Sacramental Living)
The Bible is full of people that saw evidence of God and still refused to believe. In Matthew 28:17, when the resurrected Jesus is standing before the Disciples, it says they worshiped Him but some doubted. He was right in front of their faces and they still couldn’t fully accept the reality of the resurrection.” (Sacramental Living)
“It’s interesting to me how some people can believe certain things they can’t see but experience, but do not believe other things they can’t see. Consider air and breathing. I experience breathing and accept the reality of air and oxygen. I know I breathe because I experience it. I have never seen air or oxygen but I accept it as truth because science teachers taught me about its reality. Now I know you can prove the existence of oxygen but most people are like me and have neither seen this proof nor require it to accept its reality.”(Sacramental Living)
“Seeing with your eyes doesn’t guarantee seeing with your heart.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 20:30)
“Consider: in the positions we occupy: are we consistently functioning as Christ’s hands, eyes, and mouth? Are we speaking His truth through our words? This is not a matter of acting piously, but of being faithful to the Lord. We are to apply the grace we have in daily life.” (Dynamis 10/26/12)
"Hope is based on our faith that every day in everything we do God is with us and that everything does matter" (The Road Goes Ever On)
“People who believe more must not be hard on those who believe less. Why? Because faith ultimately is not a virtue; it’s a gift.” (Pastor Timothy Keller, King’s Cross)
"God reveals Himself to human reason as human reason responds to Gog in faith." (St. John Chrysostom)
“God’s provision is never given in order to let us rest upon it. We need to depend on Him as we face each trial.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Kings 17:17)
“Trusting in God simply means you believe God will protect you. It means making a conscious effort to focus from your fear and onto God.” (Ed Strauss)
“The depth of our trust in God is often in direct proportion to our fear.” (Sacramental Living) “Faith in God keeps us from losing hope and helps us resist fear.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalms 11:1-4)
“We can resolve our fears first by focusing on God’s immeasurable love for us, and then, by allowing Him to love others through us. His love will quite your fears and give you confidence.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 John 4:18)
“We can trust God to always meet our needs…We must remember, however, the difference between our wants and needs. Most people want to feel good and avoid discomfort or pain. We may not get all we want. By trusting in Christ, our attitudes and appetites change from wanting everything to accepting His provision and power to live for Him.” (Life Application Study Bible, Philippians 4:19)
“Often God provides no solution to our problems until we trust Him and move ahead with what we know we should do.” (Life Application Study Bible, Joshua 3:13, 14)
“Faith is not found in rules…but in relationship to God…Faith includes our assent to articles of belief, but it is also our openness to God’s action in our lives.” (Orthodox Study Bible, James
1:5, Philippians 3:7-9)
“We must believe not only in the existence of God but also in His loving care…We must put away our critical attitude when we come to Him [in prayer]. God does not grant every thoughtless or selfish request. We must have confidence that God will align our desires with His purposes.” (Life Application Study Bible, James 1:6)
“What believers do is a result of faith, not a prerequisite of faith.” (Life Application Study
Philippians 3:2,3)
“Fortunately, God does not demand that our judgment be perfect in all situations. He simply asks us to put our trust in Him and do the best we know how.” (Life Application Study Bible, Joshua 2:4,5)
“For most of us who say we believe in God, our attitude in life is often the cry of the man who encountered Christ and said, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” (Sacramental Living, Mark 9:24).
“Some people need to doubt to believe. If doubt leads to questions, and questions lead to answers, the doubt has done good work. It is when doubt becomes stubbornness and becomes a prideful lifestyle the doubt harms faith.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 20:25-28)
"In your heart is your faith an opinion to which you subscribe, or a reality to which you submit?" (Joseph Pearce)
“Times of questioning can help us sort out our beliefs and strengthen our faith, but those times can also be dangerous. If we are dealing with doubt, be aware that we are especially vulnerable to temptation.” (Life Application Study Bible, Luke 4:3)
“The presence of doubt does not imply an absence of faith. Christ honors whatever faith we have and will increase faith when we sincerely desire Him.” (Orthodox Study Bible)
“We, and often the brightest minds among us, want answers by human standards and sometimes we can actually view people of faith as weak, unsophisticated, and leaning on religion as a crutch. However, it is often through our own sense of our sophistication that we lose the beautiful child-like innocence of faith so precious to Christ and stated by Him as what is required for faith.” (Sacramental Living)
“For those that have faith, no explanation is necessary. For those without faith, no explanation is possible.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)
“To look for God only in something big (rallies, churches, conferences, highly visible leaders) may be to miss Him because He is often found gently whispering in the quietness of a humbled heart…Step back from the noise and activity of your busy life and listen humbly and quietly for His guidance. It may come when you least expect it.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Kings
19:11-13)
“Faith is the step between promise and assurance.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Kings
17:13-16)
“Faith is not the supposition that something might be true, but the assurance that someone is there.” (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware)
“Faith is a principle of questioning and struggle before it becomes a principle of certitude and peace.” (Thomas Merton)
“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” (Paul Tillich)
“Faith is not logical certainty but a personal relationship, and because this personal relationship is as yet incomplete in each of us and needs to continually develop further, it is by no means impossible for faith to coexist with doubt…Yet doubt does not in itself signify a lack of faith. It may mean the opposite – that our faith is alive and growing.” (Dynamis 2/9/10)
“…our faith journey is a movement from seeing our faith as an “interesting uncertainty” to an “incomprehensible certainty.” (Gerald Manly Hopkins)
“In a world of noise, confusion, and relentless pressures, people long for peace. Many give up the search, thinking it impossible to find, but true peace of heart and mind is available to us through faith in Jesus Christ.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:3)
“Because we are locked into time, unable to see beyond today, we cannot know the reasons for everything that happens. Thus, we must often choose between doubt and trust. Will you trust God with your unanswered questions?” (Life Application Study Bible, Job 42:1)
“…we should examine our own faith, making sure we are trusting God’s power, not our own ability to produce results.” Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 17:17-20)
“The teaching of the New Testament is that God’s grace, our free will, and our faith and good works, are intimately connected. The Holy Spirit energizes in us both faith and good works as we thirst for and seek God’s grace. Neither faith nor good works can be presented as merit before God, but only as return gifts in humility, love, and thanksgiving.” (Fr. Theodore Stylianopoulos)
"A right faith in our Lord is the essential precondition for receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. Without faith in Jesus our Lord, not even our good works will make us receptive to the leavening power of the Spirit." (Dynamis 1/18/2014)
“Only the good deed done for Christ’s sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is not done for Christ’s sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life, nor the grace of God in this life.” (Saint Seraphim of Sarov)
“While good works can’t save us or even increase God’s love for us, they are true indications of our faith and love for Christ…You cannot be a Christian simply by affirming the right doctrines or agreeing with biblical facts...You must commit your mind and heart to Christ." (Life Application Study Bible, Titus 3:8, James 2:1-26)
“Deeds of loving service are not a substitute for, but rather a verification of, our faith in Christ…Right belief and right action are inseparable.” (Life Application Study Bible, James 2:15, Dynamis 6/18/2014)
“Feeling a little uncertain and afraid is at the very least understandable, but it is not a sign of weakness or faithlessness….In the book of Psalms we find numerous hymns that express the deepest levels of human anxiety and fear, juxtaposed with the eternal truth of God’s presence and protection…Yet how often in the scriptures does God tell us to "Fear not!”” (Archbishop Demetrios, Metropolitan Phillip)
“…fear, once unloosed and accepted, can either paralyze us or stampede us to great harm. In every situation where surprise or boredom dominates, Christ encourages us to trust God’s promises such as eternal life (1 Jn 2:25), rejoicing (Ps 29:5), comfort in trials (Is 43:2), providence (Rom 8:28), grace to face whatever comes (2 Cor 12:9), and much, much more. Let our first response to any hint of fear be confession and a declaration of our trust in God. It is a matter of fighting back against the weakening within ourselves by choosing to trust in the Lord, despite whatever we may feel.” (Dynamis 12/6/2014)
“Fear often makes us wait for more confirmation when we should be taking action.” (Life Application Study Bible, Judges 6:37-39)
“Our society today has seen a dramatic spike in what psychologists call anxiety disorders. Many who struggle with these conditions wrestle with trusting, with uncertainty, with not having control. Not all who struggle with fear and worry, however, have a “disorder,” for such struggle is universal and comes with living in the world. There are many secular treatments and potential remedies for anxiety. As Christians we have all these, and much more, at our disposal in our fight against fear and anxiety. To the challenge of not having control, we have the ultimate answer and solution: God is in control. Those who deny God’s existence or who do not turn to Him in their lives, deny themselves the greatest treatment for fear, anxiety, worry and doubt. Our God offers us something that the world cannot give us, and that is His peace.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul)
“The teaching is that our prayers matter—“we have not because we ask not”—and yet God’s wise plan is sovereign and infallible. These two facts are true at once, and how that is possible is a mystery to us. We feel that if God is completely in control then our actions don’t matter—or vice versa. But think how practical this is. If we believed that God was in charge and our actions meant nothing, it would lead to discouraged passivity. If on the other hand we really believed that our actions changed God’s plan—it would lead to paralyzing fear. If both are true, however, we have the greatest incentive for diligent effort, and yet we can always sense God’s everlasting arms under us. In the end, we can’t frustrate God’s good plans for us." (Pastor Timothy Keller)
“The world in which we live is an anxious one, rife with fear and doubt. Economic markets rise and fall, employment fluctuates, conflicts erupt in unexpected places, and each year seems to bring a threat of some new virus that threatens mankind. We are all continuously faced with events outside of our control. As time passes the future takes on greater uncertainty. Indeed, it is often our struggle with uncertainty that plagues our spiritual life and gives birth to fear and worry.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul)
“I found myself recalling Easter Sunday when the two Marys went to the tomb where, three days earlier, they had laid the body of their beloved friend and son Jesus but found the tomb empty. An angel of the Lord was waiting for them to explain that Jesus was missing not because someone had stolen his body, but because he had been raised from the dead, just as he had predicted. The guards were terrified, and the Scripture reads they shook and became like dead men…I have always thought that was such an interesting description of what fear does to you. You become like the dead, still living, but not really living.” (Lillian Daniel)
“Nobody should live in fear and be like the dead. God wants us to live like the living, not the dead. We’re not meant to live like the dead. And we’re not meant to treat other living people like the dead either.” (Lillian Daniel)
“Jesus did not come to make bad men good; He came to make dead men live.” (Fr Stephen Freeman)
“In John 10:10, Jesus tells us He came so we can have life and have it abundantly. Fear often causes us paralysis – not physical – but mental and spiritual that can make us stagnant and afraid to do what we know we should do. We can feel stuck and listless and bit hopeless. Placing our trust in Christ, and committing to deepening our relationship with Him over time, melts away this fear and replaces it with a renewed sense of both life and joy.” (Sacramental Living II) “…Christianity is a way of life; a way of life that is frequently in conflict with that of the world around us...The world’s values are often the opposite of God’s values. This can cause Christians to feel like misfits.” (Fr. Joseph Irvin, Life Application Study Bible, John 16:20)
“From time to time, the modern culture and everything around us can weigh us down, make us feel out of place, sometimes even makes us question if we are archaic or out of touch. We should expect this. Christ said narrow is the gate that leads to life and that it is difficult (Matthew 7:14). In other words, faith can be hard. It’s difficult to “be in the world but not of the world.” (John 17:14-15). It can make us feel isolated at times unless we have solid relationships with other people of faith. This serves is an ever present reminder we are not alone and that is often comforting.” (Sacramental Living II)
“…faith is a team effort. It is not for individualists who devise their own agenda and practices, for “all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor 12:12).” (Dynamis 3/1/2015)
“Another precondition of the Christian life is to endure... This endurance requires us to freely choose to pay the costs of maintaining our relationship with Christ. We die to the world in order to be seated with Him in spirit “on the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). Our life in Christ demands that we set our “mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2) We actively “seek those things which are above, where Christ is” .. for we know that “[our] life is hidden with Christ in God…” (Dynamis 1/31/2015)
“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” (C. S. Lewis)
“…we live in a fallen world with the twin problems of sin and the passing of time…no personal relationship or spiritual experience is self-perpetuating. Each must be nourished, sustained and fanned into flame again and again or it will die.” (Os Guinness)
“Faith is a gift from God that can grow only if we cooperate with the grace that gives birth to our faith in the first place. If we idly sit by and expect God to do all the work, we find that our faith is not able to sustain us during times of great trial and difficulty. Prayer, fasting, church attendance, spiritual reading, and frequent confession and communion are all key ingredients to a lasting, sustaining faith." (Abbot Tryphon)
“The Evangelist Luke reveals how Christ authors faith in human hearts. First He creates a climate conducive to faith, encouraging us to trust in Him. Then He calls on us – and on all who are in need – to trust Him…the Lord completes trust in Himself by giving those who come to Him tangible opportunities to express that trust directly. Christ’s grace always is active, working in advance of our trust. The Lord Jesus’ grace creates faith within us, so that we may respond to Him and thus be saved.” (Dynamis 12/7/2014)
“Immersing ourselves in the sacramental life of the Church, reading the Holy Scriptures on a daily basis, and making it a practice to keep to a prayer rule are all tried-and-true means of deepening our relationship with Christ.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“Hold fast to your faith, one day at a time; faithfully obey God, even in the details of life….Each day can open the way for us to find another way to grow closer to God and neighbor. Some days the opportunity may be so clear that it will be almost impossible to ignore. Other days, we will have to search for an opportunity to grow in our faith.” (Life Application Study Bible, Ephesians 1:1, Marianne C. Sailus)
“Faith and unbelief may seem like opposites and perhaps they are. Regardless, they tend to coexist in our hearts. For most of us who say we believe in God, our attitude in life is often the cry of the man who encountered Christ and said, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” (Sacramental Living, Mark 9:24).
“…Christ deliberately permits the windstorm to arise while He is sleeping in order to perfect the disciples' faith and rebuke their weaknesses, so they would eventually be unshaken by life's temptations. Here their faith is still mixed with unbelief. They showed faith when they came to Him, but unbelief when they said, “We are perishing.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Luke 8:22-25)
…Twice in the gospels it is said of Jesus that He marveled: (1) at the unbelief in His hometown of Nazareth (Mk 6:6), and (2) at the belief [faith] of this foreigner [the Centurion who trusted Christ to simply speak a word of healing for his sick servant and that he was not worthy that
Jesus should come to his house]” (Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 8:10)
“The logic of un-belief leads inexorably to the abyss; he who will not return to the truth must follow error to its end…Our indifference to God and His church stems from unbelief, from a lack of conversion, of changing our selfish, godless ways of thinking and living. (Fr. Seraphim Rose, Rev. Fr. Michael Baroudy)
“Unbelief is one thing. Most of us have some degree of it. But, like the Disciples were, we are works in progress and hopefully our spiritual growth is on the right trajectory. Rigid unbelief is another thing. It creates an impenetrable wall between us and God that can only come down by our choice to believe.” (Sacramental Living II)
“So much did the apostles realize that everything which pertains to salvation was bestowed on them by the Lord that they. . . said: ‘Increase our faith’ (Lk 17:5), for they did not presume that its fullness would come from free will but believed that it would be conferred on them by a gift of God”… But let us be cautious here. God’s gift of faith will not flower without our actively receiving and implementing this gift. We mortal men and women must put our faith to work. We must participate with the Lord through our daily struggles until our faith becomes great.” (OCPM 11/16/2015)
“Faith must be built up little by little, much as a painter puts on layers of paint until one day, after layer upon layer, a beautiful painting is resting on the easel.” (Abbott Tryphon)
“The Christian walk is a journey. As we continue on our path, we come to know a deepening of our faith. We can eventually see God in everything and take great comfort in knowing He is there, even when we don’t understand all that is happening." (Bettie Youngs and Debbie Thurman)
“Growth in faith and trust in God is the most important growth we can make in this life.” (Marianne C. Sailus)
“God calls us to the struggle of being faithful exactly where we find ourselves in this life.” (Dynamis 7/15/2015)
“Adults considering the Christian faith for the first time will have life experiences that take them way past the ability to be as innocent as children. Jesus does not ask us to put aside our experiences, but He does require a change of attitude: adult self-sufficiency must recognize its need for the sovereign God; adult moral defensiveness must humble itself before the holy God; and adult skeptical toughness must soften before the loving God. Children do not feel supremely powerful, perfectly righteous, or totally autonomous. These are adult fantasies.” (Life Application Study Bible, Mark 15)
“We, and often the brightest minds among us, want answers by human standards and sometimes we can actually view people of faith as weak, unsophisticated, and leaning on religion as a crutch. However, it is often through our own sense of our sophistication that we lose the beautiful child-like innocence of faith so precious to Christ and stated by Him as what is required for faith.” (Sacramental Living)
“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” (C. S. Lewis)
“To be a blessing to our children, we simply need to become childlike ourselves—to believe God’s call and to receive God’s grace for the task." (Jack Hayford)
“To feel secure, all children need is a loving look and gentle touch from someone who cares. They believe us because they trust us. Jesus said that people should trust in Him with this kind of childlike faith. We do not have to understand all the mysteries of the universe; it should be enough to know that God loves us and provides forgiveness for our sin.” (Life Application Study Bible, Mark 10:14)
“If God wants us to do something, He will give us the strength and courage to boldly speak out for Him despite any obstacle that may come our way. Boldness is not reckless impulsiveness.
Boldness requires courage to press through our fears and do what is right.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Thessalonians 2:1,2)
“You may not receive much attention (in fact, you may receive only grief) for your service for Christ. But God wants to use you. Lives will be changed because of your courage and faithfulness.” (Life Application Study Bible, Acts 17:6)
“A Christian’s … duty is to “take up his cross.” The word cross means sufferings, sorrows, and adversities. To take up one’s cross means to bear without grumblings everything unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and with love, with joy and with courageous strength." (St. Innocent of Alaska)
“Special opportunities may come our way unexpectedly. Don’t let the fear of what might happen cause you to miss an opportunity. Be alert for the opportunities God gives, and take full advantage of them.” (Life Application Study Bible, Exodus 2:7,8)
“God knows we have nothing to fear if we trust Him.” (Sacramental Living)
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
“God never intended for us to be ruled by fear." (Ben Kinchlow)
“When we allow people to intimidate us, we neutralize our effectiveness for God...Fear often makes us wait for more confirmation when we should be taking action…The power of the Holy Spirit can help us overcome our fear of what some might say or do to us so that we can continue to do God’s work.” (Life Application Study Bible, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Judges 6:36-40)
“Like Christ, we should have a servant’s attitude, serving out of love for God and for others, not out of guilt or fear.” (Life Application Study Bible, Philippians 2:5)
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, I’ll try again tomorrow.” (Unknown)
“True faith transforms our conduct as well as our thoughts… Prayer is the key that unlocks faith in our lives.” (Life Application Study Bible, James 2:14, Mark 9:29)
“…growth in faith is an incremental process... The life in Christ is a process of continuous growth in faith.” (Dynamis 1/14/2014)
“The mother of faith is hard work and an upright heart; the one builds up belief, the other makes it endure." (St. John Climacus)
“…faith and works are indissolubly linked. Faith is completed, i.e. made perfect, when we act on that which supports and furthers what our God-given faith discerns.” (Dynamis 10/21/2013)
“Love and faith go together. As true faith includes works, so true faith includes love. We cannot believe in God without loving others.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Philemon 1:5)
“Prayer is the destruction of worldy fear… Whoever fears God, does not fear anything else." (St. John of Kronstadt, Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos)
“Fear is a powerful enemy of our faith and a strong deterrent to the believer’s peace of mind…We can overcome fear by trusting God for his protection in our darkest hour... Faith in God keeps us from losing hope and helps us resist fear…yet faith needs time to mature.” (Life Application Study Bible, Isaiah 8:11-15, Psalm 3:1-2, Psalms 11:1-4,1 Timothy 3:1-6)
“For moods will change... I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods “where they get off,” you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.” (C. S. Lewis)
“Because faith is built on an encounter, it is not something that can ever be coerced, whether by force of reason or any other kind of force.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“...we should trust God because He is God and not our personal assistant or life coach. We should trust Him because it is his due, He is worthy of it, not because it will get us something ...trusting God when we do not understand Him is to treat Him as God and not as another human being.”” (Pastor Timothy Keller)
“…open-ended obedience to God’s call constitutes the nature of true faith. First, we obey. Only afterward do we grasp what God intended all along. Faith is stepping forth into the unknown so that we may learn to experience directly the mind of God. Genuine faith…consists in trusting God over the course of many years of seeming contradictions. True faith waits on God for the outcomes that He promises…. To have faith means acting obediently, with open-ended trust in God, never fully knowing how it will all work out. Faith holds an element of adventure.” (Dynamis 3/28/14)
“The life in Christ is a series of choices and actions undertaken after the manner of Abraham. It is a journey that carries us far from the measurable and the familiar, directing us toward a new way of life.We learn to follow this new way by means of sustained obedience over many years.” (Dynamis 3/28/14)
“Obedience is not to carry out this or that order that you were given, while you object on the inside. Obedience is to subordinate your soul’s convictions so that you may be freed from your evil self. Obedience is to become a slave in order to become free…Herein lies our problem: “listening” to our thoughts creates struggles – a raging storm of contradictory ideas and impulses.” (Dynamis 3/19/2014)
“Obeying God is often a struggle because it may mean giving up something we truly want. We should not expect our obedience to God to be easy or come naturally.” (Life Application Study
Bible, Genesis 22:3)
“This is real faith: believing and acting obediently regardless of circumstances or contrary evidence. After all, if faith depended on visible evidence, it wouldn’t be faith.” (Charles Colson)
“Is anxiety a disease or an addiction? Perhaps it is something of both. Partly, perhaps, because you can’t help it, and partly because for some dark reason you choose not to help it, you torment yourself with detailed visions of the worst that can possibly happen.” (Frederick Buechner)
“Remember one is given strength to bear what happens to one, but not the 100 and 1 different things that might happen...Not all the things you fear can happen to you: the one (if any) that does will perhaps turn out very different from what you think.” (C. S. Lewis)
“Often we waver between faith and fear. When you feel so discouraged that you are sure no one understands, remember that God knows every problem and sees every tear.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalms 56:8)
“Persistent, faithful, plodding belief and hope are necessary if we are to remain free to give. Despair, which descends by dungeon steps to depression, is one of the major afflictions in our society. People seek relief from it sometimes in entertainment, sometimes in violence. Christians make their way out of it step by step, sometimes with great effort, on hardly visible footholds of sharing. The besetting temptation of the life of the Spirit is simply to quit.” (Eugene H. Peterson)
“God does not exempt believers from the day-to-day circumstances of life. Believers and unbelievers alike experience pain, trouble, and failure at times....Unbelievers have a sense of hopelessness about life and confusion over their true purpose on earth. Those who seek God, however, can move ahead confidently with what they know is right and important in God’s eyes. They know that God will keep them from being moved off His chosen path.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalms 16:8)
"The deeper a relationship we have with God, the stronger our Faith will be. Our Prayer Rule helps to open us to the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Our goal as Christians is to get rid of all that holds us back or scatters our attention, so that our whole life might be focused on God alone." (Abouna Justin Rose)
“Your faith is like a muscle – it grows with exercise, gaining strength over time.” (Life Application Study Bible, Genesis 50:24)
“First and foremost we understand that faith changes the heart… Second, faith reconfigures behavior… Third, faith in the living God re-orders the entire personality.” (Dynamis 4/2/2014) “Believe in God and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that this material world is the only reality: disbelieve in Him and you must face hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is not all. No conviction, religious or irreligious, will, of itself, end once and for all this fifth-columnist in the soul. Only the practice of Faith resulting in the habit of Faith will gradually do that.” (C. S. Lewis)
“God gave us minds that should be developed and used. To ignore intellectual growth is to live a stunted and naive life...Faith is reasonable, though reason alone cannot explain the whole of it. So use your mind to think things through. But leave room for the unexplainable works of God.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 11:6)
“Christianity is not something to be studied and only approached through the mind and intellectual reasoning as if God is something philosophical that we can understand through our brains only…Yet this does not mean that our ability to reason is without value for it too is Godgiven.” (Sacramental Living)
“Reason is a powerful tool in the right hands and in the right situation.” (Life Application Study
Bible, Acts 18:27-28)