Exactly what is faith? 

Did you ever realize that faith and freedom are two sides of one coin? 

Freedom is a highly-prized commodity. People live and die for it. If we stopped to consider it, we’d realize just how highly we value it. But are we really free? That’s the question. 

Consider this:

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34–36)

What does freedom have to do with faith? EVERYTHING. Absolutely everything.

Because if the truth be known, most of us live our lives as slaves to the here and now, conditioned to buy ever more stuff – and, as we do, to buy into a world where we really don’t belong.

And then we reduce faith to being something that gets us out of the debt we’re in… so that we can go spend some more. I think we’ve missed the point. We bring God down to our level instead of lifting our eyes up to His – and then wonder why this faith thing isn’t working. Hello?!

So when Jesus said… 

“Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.” (Mark 11:22–24)

… He wasn’t talking about “believing for a new BMW” or thinking that we could “name it and claim it” to get a round-the-world holiday. In fact, I know that’s not what He meant. Because Jesus also said:

“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

That’s a statement that doesn’t sit so well with today’s consumer mentality. Nor this one:

“Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.” (Luke 17:33)

In fact, the more of Jesus’ words you read, the more you realize that either He needed a better spin doctor to get His message out or He never really intended to fit into our 21st-century consumerist mentality at all.

Which of those statements do you think is true?

LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS 

• Have you ever thought about the connection between faith and freedom? Think about Jesus’ promise to set you free. How does it sit with you?
• When you sit back and take a good, long, honest look at your everyday life, can you see times when you’ve allowed your decisions to be driven by this consumerist culture that we’re immersed in?
• What do you think it looks like to live in a way where your faith causes you to lift your eyes to God’s level, and live in true freedom?
• Spend some time sitting with Jesus, and meditate on the two statements above that He made in Luke. Ask Him to show you more of what it means to lose your life for Him – and, in so doing, to keep it.