Why Practice Faith?

Most of our day to day decisions have clear knowledge and facts we can use to weigh our options. But some of the most important questions we face in life have to be answered with no measurable facts:

• What is the meaning of life?
• Is there a God?
• Does God love me?
• What does God want me to do?
• What happens when we die?

Though there are endless philosophies and belief systems that attempt to answer these questions, none can be proven without doubt.

In my previous post, Does God Really Exist?, I touched on the idea that God’s existence can not be proven in an intellectual and scientific way. I talked about building faith and ended questioning the value of committing oneself to building faith in something we know we can not prove.

What Is the Benefit of Faith?

If you’ve ever interviewed for a job, you have experienced the benefit of faith. When we interview, we make a tremendous effort to achieve a goal we may or may not achieve. It is nearly impossible to put forth such an effort without faith that we will achieve that goal. It’s generally the case that the more faith, or confidence, we have in our ability to land the job, the better we perform in the interview process and the more likely we are to succeed.

This is how faith works in all areas of our lives. The more faith we have in God and our life’s purpose, the more direction and purpose we will find in our lives. On the other hand, when we lack faith, direction, purpose and motivation are difficult to find and life grows stagnant.

The risk of placing faith in something of which we are not certain seems much less than the risk of a life devoid of faith.

We can ask ourselves these questions:

• Am I better off believing that God exists if, in fact, he does not, or am I better off believing God does not exists if, in fact, he does?
• Am I better off believing that life has no purpose if, in fact, it does, or am I better off believing life has purpose if, in fact, it does not?