Faith does not completely depend on bible knowledge, but knowing who God is greatly strengthens our faith. When we believe in God and act (obey) based on that belief, that is faith. You can believe in God and not have faith. Even demons believe in God, they just don’t act (obey) based on God. Matthew 8:28, “When He (Jesus) arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met them. They were so violet that no one could pass that way. ‘What do you want with us, Son of God?’ they shouted. Have you come to torture us before the appointed time?’”
I have always believed in God, but like most Christians, I have doubted and questioned different aspects of Christianity. It took me several years to discover that the reason for my doubt was because I didn’t know that much about my proclaimed faith. Faith involves three elements – truth that leads to conviction that leads to action. How could I live my faith if I did not understand it to the point where I could explain it (truth – intimate knowledge of the bible)? And once I understood and could explain it, would I believe it (conviction/belief in Jesus) and hand over control to God by being more obedient (action)?
Unlike other religions, you are not born into the Christian faith. If you believe in the whole “Jesus is my Lord and Savior “thing”, nothing else matters. You are a Christian. But how do you get to the point of total belief that Jesus is the resurrected King? Some Christians have a cataclysmic or “born again” experience where they instantaneously know there is a God and their faith is born.
But most Christians are like me. We want to believe, actually dust off the bible and open it up, entertain the possibility of God’s gift of grace and unconditional love, begin to pray, and try to start living a life closer to Jesus’ example, by obeying what He has asked us to do in said bible. Slowly we come to realize that yes, indeed, there is a God and Jesus is real.
We come to faith in different ways like the shepherds and the Magi when they learned the news of the birth of Jesus. The shepherds were awoken by an angel and told of the birth of our Savior. It was sudden and frightening. They got up and set out immediately for Bethlehem. They didn’t wait for the markets to open, stock up on travel supplies or get a good night’s sleep before the big trip. The shepherds heard the angel bring good news of a new born Savior, saw the field of heavenly hosts (angels) and instantly fled to the city of David, Bethlehem, to see the prophesized infant Savior.
The Magi were pagans familiar with the Jewish scripture. When they saw the star, they remembered Daniel’s prophecy of a promised king and were curious. A part of them probably wanted to believe that the prophecy had been fulfilled, but they were not going to believe that their Savior had been born until they saw Him with their own eyes.
It took them two years (your manger depiction is technically incorrect unless you have the wisemen in your garage at Christmas time), but they made it to toddler Jesus and bowed down. Still following the star, the Magi did not find Jesus in a stable, but in a house. Matthew 2: 10-11, When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and bowed down and worshiped Him. Were they still in Bethlehem? Since Mary and Joseph were still betrothed (engaged) only at this time, if they wanted to avoid the stares and gossip they would encounter upon returning home with a new born perhaps they remained in Bethlehem. But this house could also be back in Nazareth, scripture does not specify.
The fact that the Gentile magi performed the same adoration as the Jewish shepherds symbolized the universal outreach for future Christianity. I am a Magi, and although I was never blessed with an awe inspiring heavenly host shepherd moment, I have traveled a long path, asked the questions, and invited Jesus into my life.
When we invite Him into our lives, we see and feel him working through us. Skeptics may call this a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, but for those of us who become believers, we have done enough questioning, and seen enough instances of God’s grace in our own lives to know we have found the Truth.
We trust even if we don’t understand “why”. Creator God has spoken into existence 200 sextillion stars into the universe. His largest is UY Scuti, a red hypergiant that could hold about 5 billion of our suns. For better perspective, more than a million earths could fit into our sun. I cannot wrap my head around how big UY Scuti is (let alone, how God spoke it into existence), so how am I to understand all the things God is doing in my one human life. As a believer, my ineptness in understanding gives me peace. I have turned control over to Him with my obedience to his ways, which gives me this peace (and also blows my mind). And the more I am out of obedience compliance, the less peace I have. Isn't this so counter to our culture? We think if we have control, we will have peace. Well, do you?
Having this peace in the midst of some really sad/bad things in my life is what strengthens my faith. I have free will to obey or not, and I fail at being 100% in obedience compliance every single day. And if I were somehow able to be 100% obedience compliant (which there is a 0% chance of), this world of evil would still impact me, still requiring my reliance on Jesus. My faith has brought about a significant increase in obedience, making me less of a worrying, selfish, prideful sinner. I still worry, am selfish and a daily sinner, but I am a believer who can sleep at night in peace. And knowing my love for control and wanting to know all the "whys"/"why nots", I recognize this change as a far greater miracle than moving a mountain, parting the sea, or creating an impossible to imagine star.
It is easy to get discouraged when you don’t understand some of the Bible text on your own, or even after a minister or teacher explains it. Even the disciples who had Jesus himself teaching eternal truths did not grasp it all. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus called Peter a “rock” after confessing his faith. And just four verses later in Matthew 16:22-23, Jesus called him a stumbling block because Peter was afraid of what Jesus was saying and denied that it could ever happen. Embrace what you do believe and continue to seek deeper meanings from scripture so that you advance in your faith. This is one of the reasons Jesus asked God to send us the Holy Spirit, so that He could help us better understand God's word. As you grow in your faith, you will sin less and it will hurt more. Welcome to spiritual maturity!
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