Faith, to me, is more of an action word. I’ll show you some things in the Bible later.
Now, if faith without works is dead, then there can be no such thing as faith alone, unless you define faith as including works.
Faith, in the end, is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There can be no true faith without it. However, we do have a duty to foster our faith through prayer, contemplation, and study. Again, it is the work of the Holy Spirit that drives us.
Now, the last one is one that I have argued about with many people. Faith CANNOT be only a matter of the heart. Your heart lies, emotions lie. Sometimes, reason must be involved. There is no way that having intellect and reason, which are two of the things that make us in the image and likeness of God, can be both gifts from God and against having faith. At some point, you must have both. You must know in your head that Jesus is who he claimed to be and why AND you must be willing to accept those things that you cannot understand.
Now, as far as faith goes, I love the Eleventh Chapter from Hebrews. Most people read the first part and stop. I mean read the whole thing. You see that faith MADE people do things. It was faith that made Noah build the Ark. It was Faith that made Abraham leave UR and offer his son to God. And so on.
Faith is active and it must be active in every part of our lives.
