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Faith is everywhere. People put their faith in many things every day. Let's say that Average Joe is going to work one day - he puts his faith in the manufacturer of his car when he's driving - trusting that the car is safe. He has an amount of faith in other drivers on the road, that they're fairly non-terrible drivers. Otherwise he wouldn't drive! His buddy he carpools with, Mr. Normal, puts his faith in Joe by trusting him to drive safely. The road's a dangerous place, but Mr. Normal knows that Joe's a good driver. Many people die in car accidents, but Mr. Normal trusts Joe with his life.
Average Joe sits down in a chair at work. He doesn't know the company that made the chair or how strong the chair is, but he sits down on it anyways. As you can see, faith is exercised every day. Faith matters very much and faith can also do very much - take for example Matthew 21:21-22. Jesus had just withered up a fig tree, and his disciples were amazed. Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." In the Gospels, many people came to Jesus with faith, and people were healed or even raised from the dead by Jesus just because of their simple faith.
Not many people with argue with me on these points. People are always saying that faith can accomplish much (i.e. "believe in yourself"). There was even a whole chart-toping song about believing in yourself (think of "I'm not perfect, but I'm still trying," in a whiny voice).
But our faith needs to be in the right things. Some people decide to believe in themselves, no matter how many times they get it wrong, and fail themselves and others. Some people, atheists, decide to put their faith in science. Hey, science is great - it gave us blogs! But science is also unreliable and has it's limits. If you put your faith in the wrong things, they will fail you. We must make sure we choose the right things to put our faith in!
Faith is especially important when our eternal destination is at stake. It's easy to have faith in a chair - all that happens if it breaks is that you'll have a sore be-hind. People know that car manufacturers are generally reliable, so they have faith in cars, even though they may die if something goes wrong. But I'm talking about something even more important then when we die. Everyone will live and die - it's just a matter of when. But our eternal destination is the most important thing we could every think about - we'll be stuck there forever. And only One can calm the storm inside our souls. Only One has overcome the gates of Hell.
