The necessity of faith in an infinite God

Belief is powerful, both positively and negatively. To believe and act upon the right things has infinite consequences for good but to believe the wrong things has infinite consequences for harm. 

Faith is necessary. By virtue of being created we are ¹finite and therefore ²dependent beings. ²We must engage and operate by trust/faith in order to function properly. 

We must trust because we are finite and therefore dependent beings. God alone is infinite in love, wisdom, and power.

Who or what do we trust? We either place our trust in ³ourselves or in someone infinitely greater-wiser-more powerful than us.

When we trust in God and recognize he - not us - is greatest of all, we can accomplish amazing things. But if our faith is placed in the wrong thing(s), it can result in us doing incredibly harmful and destructive things. How harmful and destructive is determined by ⁴what we believe best brings life and how deeply we believe it. 

Faith coupled with the extent and amount of the gifts we have been given determines how much good or harm can be done. The more highly gifted a person the more they can be a means of great evil or great good.

Faith is powerful and when coupled with the right object - i.e. the all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving God - it can release in and through us amazing outcomes. To do amazing things requires amazing faith but not faith in anything but in the right thing i.e. the all-powerful, loving, wise and amazing God. The benefit, value and effectiveness of our faith is determined by the object of it.

Truly amazing outcomes are the combination of great faith in an infinitely great object-Being.  The more we recognize the greatness of the object - God - the greater our faith-trust in that object.

Great faith in the wrong thing doesn't work. Neither does no faith in the right thing.

For a further discussion on related topics, check out the following: 

The essence of God's life and therefore ours.

Why do the Father and Son love each other?

Why are relationships important?

Is God dependent?

Beatific vision - what is it?

What is life and love?

 

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¹By finite I mean we are not all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present. I am not saying we are not able to do far more than we presently do. Our capacity for great good and achievement is far greater than any of us realize, but only if we operate according our design i.e. when we are fully “plugged in” to our Creator who is the source of infinite life and love (which starts in this present life through Christ and is not fully participated in until we are with him face to face in eternity). We are, after all, like God or god-like if you will. And we are this way so we might participate in all that God is, to the greatest extent possible, without actually being Him - we are not God (infinite in love, wisdom, power, and existence) and never will be. We are finite and wholly dependent on God to be all we are designed to be.

²In the physical realm, it is easy to illustrate our dependence. We must have air, food, water, and shelter to survive. In our present circumstances, we have come to take for granted that air, food, and water are helpful and not harmful i.e. We trust this is true because we have found it to be so. But if we went to an unfamiliar environment - such as an alien planet - we would be cautious because we wouldn't know whether the air, food, and water there is life-sustaining or not. If we are not careful in finding out it could cost us our lives.

³Trust in ourselves includes trust in persons or things we think we control, i.e. we are ultimately trusting in our ability to obtain from something or someone else what we need - and we may, for a short time, but not ultimately. God ultimately controls and sustains everything, and our experiencing the benefits of these is a gift from God, whether we acknowledge it or not. To not acknowledge this however has significantly dire consequences. This results in us eventually no longer having these good gifts or the provider of them, once we leave this world.

To trust in ourselves also means we think we are better able and wiser than God to take care of ourselves.

⁴This can be wealth, power, pleasure, or whatever we think (believe) will ultimately give us what we most need.

Having faith in God does not mean we can't believe in ourselves it means we can't believe we are wiser than God. It is not just OK but good to recognize and acknowledge our abilities as long as we also recognize they are not and will never be greater than Gods but in fact come to us because of God. Neither will they give us what we ultimately need and seek no matter how great they are.