Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Faith, Belief, and Hope

These words get mentioned a lot in the scriptures, but they rarely seem to get defined. As someone who is not a native speaker of Gospel, I needed a translation. Which wasn't available, so I'm making my own

Faith - action in the face of an uncertain outcome

How strong your faith is, is measured by how much uncertainty you're willing to act in the face of. 1%? 25%? 75%? 99%?

Belief - an idea that one holds and believes is true, but does not act upon

Beliefs come in two flavors: empowering (as in "God can heal me") and limiting (as in "I don't think God will heal me this time"). You can, if you choose, limit your limiting beliefs (as in "but it's possible he might"), which can strengthen your ability to act in faith.

Hope - (n.) a righteous goal; (v.) to choose a righteous goal

Faith usually encompasses a hope, and so may be defined

Faith - action, in the pursuit of a righteous goal, in the face of an uncertain outcome.

UPDATE 4-5-20: I'm not exactly sure how this fits in, but I had this related thought:

Faith - willingness to act on an empowering belief

I don't think that's actually faith (because faith requires action) but I do think other people use the word faith this way. They also use it to mean the empowering belief itself. And sometimes they switch back and forth on definitions during a single discourse, which is why hearing people talk about faith often leaves me confused.

UPDATE: In certain contexts, faith can also mean the "empowering belief" itself.

UPDATE (3-8-23): More complete:

Faith - willingness to act on an empowering belief, believing that taking that action will make my life better.

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