Faith and Understanding
Does faith come through understanding?
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."So understanding is next on the list of Christian necessities, right?
Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;Knowledge precedes understanding? How can you know something you don't understand?
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2nd Peter 1 (KJV)
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."
1st Corinthians 2:12 (KJV)
So where does understanding come in?
"But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
Matthew 13:23 (KJV)
"He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."
John 12:40 (KJV)
"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
Ephesians 5:17 (KJV)
It seems to me that by the time we come to faith that, by the grace of God, we are made aware of the knowledge God in Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing the word and once we are converted we should seek to understand what is the will of God and trust in Him to continue to enlighten us according to it.
Edited: 05/18/07 - See Comments
offered by Kc | 4/26/2006 06:59:00 AM
16 Comments:
Unless of course, you are John the Baptist since he believed and lept in his mother's womb before he was born at the presence of Christ.
But other than that... yes...
Blessings
Pastor it's great to see you again! I always appreciate your thoughts but today it's just really good to hear from you. ;-)
I pray and hope you are all doing well and trust God to continue to bless. Please give our best to sis Beth. ;-)
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God... Hebrews 11:3
BTW, are you by any chance near Bayou la Batre? I had a wonderful seafood dinner there a few days ago.
Thanks for the Bible study, Kc.
Gordon that's a great verse. I wanted to pursue this topic farther but I'm sort of "seriesd out" (hehe)
I'm about 10 miles from the bayou. They were hit pretty hard by Katrina and are still a few years from recovery.
Matthew I love bible study, especially devotions. I think that might be why I enjoy reading blogs so much. ;-)
I have a limited understanding of faith, and I have faith that my understanding of faith will one day be complete. =)
hehe That's cute Kristi. ;-)
...what Kristi said...
;-}
what I said to Kristi (hehe) ;-)
=)
Kc, what a thought-provoking and inspiring post. Yeah I agree with what Kristi said...amen to Seeker and what you said to Kristi and LOL....
I dare not lean on my own understanding, as faith is accepting the fact that God knows better than I do what is ultimately good for me.
KC, good post. You bring up some good questions and, as, Matthew said, thanks for the Bible study. Now I have to read the post again to see if I get it.
That Kristi is very deep!
i have so many things that i don't unerstand but i kept my faith in Him. i think what matters most is knowing who we put our faith in. if we know our God then we don't need to understand everything.
May the peace of God be with you, KC :)
CS HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I would sing it to you but then everyone on my blog would leave! ;-)
Many happy returns dear brother.
Kitty isn't it true that, more often than not, faith leads us against our own understanding?
Great contribution Jeff, as always. I might quibble with you on belief but I'm going to dwell on your definition a while first.
Thanks Rose. I'd like to go a little deeper into this but my attention is spread too thin at the moment. Kristi is a deep thinker. That makes two of you! ;-)
Pia I totally agree. If our faith is in anything other than Christ then all the understanding in the world is worthless!
Audrey mijn zus, moge het ook met jou zijn. ;-)
Upon reflection I would amend the statement, “It seems to me that by the time we come to faith that by the grace of God we should already have an understanding of God in Jesus Christ”, to this; “It seems to me that by the time we come to faith that, by the grace of God, we are made aware of the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ.”
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