Daily language uses the terms "faith" and "believing" regularly. People say they "believe in ghosts" or "believe in the Labour party." The point of the sen­tences is simply that one is convinced that ghosts exist, convinced that the Labour party has the best answers for Aus­tralia's problems.

The church also uses the words "faith" and "believe". Every Sunday we profess faith with one of the Ecumenical Creeds, and then we say with the church of all ages:

I believe in God the Father Almighty..., I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son..., I believe in the Holy Spirit...

We understand: when we say that we "believe in God", we say that we have faith in God. But what does it mean to believe in God, to have faith in God? Are we saying the same as the person who believes in ghosts; are we saying no more than that God exists, God is real?

As it turns out, one can believe in ghosts without ever hunting for one, and one can believe in the Labour party without ever casting a vote for the party. But one cannot believe in God and sit on one's hands. To believe in God can never be a matter of the head only, can never be a matter that does not affect the way one lives and the things one does. To believe in God in the Scriptural sense of the word involves one's whole being and hence one's entire life, all one thinks and does.¹ In fact, instead of saying "I believe in God", it would be Scripturally even more ac­curate to say: "I am believing in God."² The point is that believing is not a momentary thing, something you do right now and not five minutes from now; believing is an ongo­ing action. Faith, then, is not something you have today and do not have tomorrow. Faith is a continuing thing, something that goes on and on.

But what is this faith? What does it really mean to believe in God? The way we tend to use the word "faith" in the English language points up that faith involves trust, reliance. We say: "I have faith in my car", and we understand that sentence to mean that we're convinced the car will get us to work and back. "I have faith in my doctor," we say, and with those words mean that we are ready and willing to submit to the medication he prescribes. To "have faith" means, then, that we trust the person (or the thing) in which we believe.

So it's in the Bible too, with the Scriptural word "faith". Believing in God, having faith in God, means that we trust this God, com­mit ourselves to Him.³ Faith, then, involves more than knowing certain things about God; faith involves a relationship with God, faith involves a living communion with Him that receives expression in humble dependence on God. To have faith does not mean that one is convinced that God exists, nor even simply that God has given His Son for the salvation of the world, and that one then carries on living one's life far removed from God, with­out regard for God, without trust in Him. To have faith means if I may say it this way that one holds God's hand every moment of one's existence. Faith involves that one clings to this God always, that one feels safe with this God. Faith involves that one knows God as his caring covenant Father.

I use the imagery of holding God's hand quite on purpose. To hold Gods hand that's an image arising from the life of a child, specifi­cally of a child who feels threatened, over­whelmed. That child clings to the parent, feels safe with the parent, trusts the parent to find the way through the crowds of strang­ers. That child has a living relation with that parent, a relation involving dependence, trust, and hence also a willingness to be led, to be told what to do. That's what faith in God is all about: one casts oneself into the hands of this God, one holds His hands, feels safe with Him. Consider the security portrayed by David in Ps 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; (and therefore) I shall not want. (For:) He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters ... Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

David doesn't use here the term faith, but he's certainly captured here what faith is all about. Faith is not something simply of the head, in the sense that "I know there is a God" or "I'm sure He cares for me" or "I accept that Jesus paid for my sins." The Scriptural concept of faith implies that one knows one­self dependent, with all one's whole heart and soul, on this God every moment of the day. In truth: faith is a living relation with God. As one author put it: a "trustful commit­ment and reliance" on Him.⁴

As to a concrete example of this faith in ac­tion, we may look at Noah. We read in Gen 6 that God commanded Noah to "make your­self an ark of gopher-wood" (vs 14), and there followed the measurements, the food to be collected, etc. God gave as reason for this instruction His plan to bring a flood on all the earth, and so destroy all flesh For our part, we can understand that Noah will have puz­zled over such an instruction; building an ark, let alone awaiting a flood, was not what one commonly saw or did. Nevertheless, Noah obeyed this instruction from God. Say the Scriptures: "Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did" (Gen 6:22).

The author of Hebrews describes this obedi­ence on Noah's part as faith in action. We read this:

by faith Noah ... prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he con­demned the world (of unbelief) and be­came heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.Gen 11:7

See there what faith is: Noah held God's hand, as it were, trusted this God wherever God led, and so obediently did whatever God told him to do, whether it made sense to Noah's sinful mind or not. Faith is more than accepting for true the fact that Jesus died for sin; faith is a living relation with God, trust­ing Him moment by moment.

The Lord gives us a second example of faith in action in the person of Abram. Abram be­lieved in God, and so when the God in whom Abram believed came to him with the in­struction to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and shift to an unknown place, he went. Why he could pack his bags and go? Says Heb 11: "by faith". That is: Abram entrusted himself into God's care, held God's hand in the ups and downs of life, knew that wherever this God would lead him in life was OK. That is faith: he held on to God's hand, trusted that the way God led him was good. Again it's clear: faith is more than believing that God is real, is more than accepting for true the fact that God gave His only Son to pay for our sins. Faith, at heart, is that "trustful commitment and reliance" on God that characterises the person who holds God's hands in all the ups and downs of life.

But, I hear you say, God doesn't speak to us as He did to Noah and to Abram, doesn't give us specific instructions. If we were in Noah's shoes, or Abram's, we'd surely obey God's command also...

I'm not permitted to agree with you, dear reader. For God does give us instructions, instructions relevant for each day, yes, for each moment of the day. God has given us a Bible, and with that gift given the instruction that we are to live according to the com­mands of that Bible every day. Just as with Abram and with Noah, our faith too is to become apparent through obedience, blindly doing whatever God asks regardless of the consequences, regardless too of whether God's commands make sense to us in the circumstances.

That means for us today: it's not necessarily the person who goes to church that has faith. Nor is it necessarily the person who has made profession of faith or even sits at the table of the Lord. The person who has faith is the person who humbly accepts all that God says. That's true with regards to doc­trine: the believer is the person who accepts for truth the terrible things that the Lord has said about our total depravity and our inabil­ity to pay for sin and so escape the wrath of God, who accepts for truth to the humbling message that God came to my rescue in the Mediator Jesus Christ by causing Him to shed His blood to pay for my sins.

But more: the person who has faith also ac­cepts the commandments God has given. The person of faith accepts that the God who has become our Father in Christ knows what's good for us and what is not, and so told us in His Word what to do and what to stay away from. In His love for us He told us, for exam­ple, to remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, and so to go to church, because it's in church that the Holy Spirit works the faith we need for salvation. Believing in this God, having faith in this God, entrusting oneself to this God means then that one says: Fa­ther, if that's what you think is good for me, then of course I'll go to church. God tells us too to honour the parents He gave us, to obey them, be submissive, tells us that because He wants us to learn from our parents to know Him and how to serve Him. The person of faith, then, says: Ok, Father, if you think it's good for me to submit to my parents, then I'll do that. I'll deny myself, I'll submit to Dad and Mom and to all in authority over me, even though I think I should have more free­dom, I'll submit because I trust that Your judgment is best.

More such examples could be given. But I trust the point is clear. Who has faith? He has faith who holds God's hand day by day, who follows whatever way He wants one to go, who humbly entrusts himself to His care. That's the person who has faith.

You see: faith is not something you put on the shelf. Faith is something you experience. And see in your own life.