What is the difference between faith and belief and why is it important?

The topic of faith and belief has been a topic that I have spent some time reflecting on because I hadn’t really found the reason why these two closely related terms have different meanings although you would think they would be sort of the same thing.

The core difference between faith and belief is one is a spiritual state and the other is a mental state.  The spirit world and the physical world exist together at the same time yet they are totally separate entities. To point out the some spiritual qualities probably the Apostle Paul said it best. ”But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  from the book of Corinthians.  Faith, hope and love are all spiritual qualities, not worldly.  Of course, the greatest of these is love, or charity, meaning giving love.

Faith and Belief are vital elements of how we go through life.

So how are faith and belief used in society?  Belief is a mental construction of guidelines. This is the physical world, the ego based world and the world of religion and politics. Even atheists are believers, because they cling on to a worldly mental construction of what ‘God’ isn’t, and that is in fact a belief.  In fact, atheists have probably spent a lot of time looking for ‘God’ and can’t find it because they are looking for worldly proof for it. You cannot find ‘God’ by looking into the world of reality, if you will. You cannot reason ‘God’.  Therefore, in the world of belief, you can sit around and argue all day about it and never come up with a satisfactory solution because the essence of God is not worldly. This is one reason why religions have such difficulty with each other, because they set up an entire belief system, rules and regulations to live by and if you don’t believe and live according to those beliefs then you are not ”holy”.  This is the main problem with religions. They profess to have the answer to who God is, yet they miss the point altogether, because they are tied up in the worldly, mental and man made constructions.

Faith is the evidence of things unseen

”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.  Faith is a state of being. It is a spiritual state. All things spiritual can only be proven by circumstantial evidence. You cannot prove faith. Faith is not believing. Faith and belief exist on a seemingly equivalent plane, but in fact they are totally different.

Faith, trust or a knowledge in fact of certainty that exists without question, because in questioning faith you make it worldly. ‘O ye of little faith’ is something you hear quite often in religions, but actually what this is saying is, stop looking for a belief structure for something that cannot have it, if it did, it would not be faith, but a belief and it would not be spiritual but worldly, and that is not what the kingdom of heaven is all about.

So, how can this discussion on faith be important in the world?  In fact, it is all important. Without faith, hope and love, nothing would have ever been brought into being.  Faith is the most necessary element in creation, in manifesting into reality an idea which has no explanation yet. Hope, is a courageous attitude of focus on gain, without it all dreams die. Love, is the passionate energy you give to what you are involved in to power it to success.

So, in considering doing whatever it is you want to do, it isn’t belief that will get you there, only faith, hope and love can do that. Trust that you can do anything that comes into your realm, have hope and focus on the gain you and those around you will achieve by doing it and give all your love and passion into what you are doing.

I find that beliefs are a dangerous thing. People go around trying to prove their beliefs by following rules and hanging on to dogma. This circus of balancing rules and life takes up a lot of time and energy, when in fact the only thing that decides whether people trust you or not is based on something no one can really define. Those who live by rules get caught up in them and their lives become tangled.

The beauty of the spiritual world is like swimming in the crystal clear seas of the Greek Isles or breathing the fresh air of the mountaintops. The pure crystal truth that shines with light in our lives is free of worldly definitions and justifications. We just are. Being.

Have faith in yourself because you are at one with God (Universe or whatever you choose to call it. After all, even in the Bible it states that God says his name is I am, or the God that has no name, undefinable, space, isness) ”And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:7 (Again an indication that trying to understand will keep you away from spirituality.)

You can do it. Faith, hope and love… These are the sources of your true power.

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