Faith and Soul Care | Grow Closer to God | How To Find Joy In Life Again | Spiritual Growth | Biblical Counseling | Christian Mindfulness

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Faith is critical to understanding God, following Jesus, and living the Christian life. Furthermore, faith – we are told in the Bible – is what gives us assurance of salvation. So what is faith? Moreover, what is biblical faith; what is New Testament faith? Or what did Jesus mean… or specifically, what did the disciples and Paul mean when they wrote the pistis…the Greek word that is usually translated faith?

Have we actually been taught or do we truly know what biblical faith is? And do you know what – the word pistis, or the word usually translated faith in the New Testament – is in the New Testament over 240 times. And guess what – the word pistis in all its forms is translated three different ways. Sometimes it is translated as “faith,” sometimes it is translated as “belief,” and sometimes it is translated as “trust.” In actuality, biblical faith – pistis – is both belief with trust. See, most translations of the Bible are a word for word or thought for thought translation. This means that it is the goal of the translators to choose one word in English to best represent the underlying Greek word, or in thought to thought translation – to choose to translate the underlying Greek word with the corresponding English thought, using as short a phrase as needed. What this means is that when we read our English New Testaments, in some cases, we lose some of the richness and some of the preciseness of the original language, and in other cases – we cannot be sure whether the word was intended to be translated one way or another. At that point, translation scholars, look at the overall context and the tenses and forms of the words to determine what is most likely the most appropriate translation. It is clear though – that in the New Testament, the word pistis is best translationed “belief with trust.” I will show you some examples here in the Greek grammar books. Belief with trust, Belief assuming trust.

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Have you ever noticed that when you ask God for insight, or for wisdom about a situation, that he often gives it to you fairly quickly? What are some problems or situations that you could use some of God’s insight to help resolve or manage?

In numerous situations,  I’ve found that insight or an answer from God has been given pretty quickly after asking Him for it – not always – but most of the time.  I learned something this week about the underlying Greek in a verse in James 1, which caused me to have some, “Yeah, that’s true!”  moments.

In James 1:5, it says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Then the next part sounds difficult. It says, in James 1:6, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

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Today, I'm going to share three strategies that anyone can use to help control and regulate their anxiety from day to day. This is part of the "Emotions Series" on this blog, blogcast, and on the Gospel Life Learning YouTube channel. 

We all know that Philippians 4 says,  "Don't worry about anything...Pray about everything." And scripture also tells us to cast all our anxieties, cast all our fears to the Lord - because he cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7). For many people, those are two of our favorite verses. It is so comforting to know that is what God wants for us,  and that is one way the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ wants to help us. 

But is anyone else wondering, "How? How do I do that?"  I'm going to give you three strategies, and two of the strategies you can do quickly almost anywhere. The third strategy -  you could probably also do almost anywhere but it takes a little bit more structure.

“What does Jesus teach us about the pursuit of happiness?”

The Bible doesn’t really use a word that is equal to the way we typically use the word “happiness” today.  Instead, the Bible relies on the Greek word “chara,” which is usually translated as “joy.”  Now the word “chara” comes from the word “charis,” which is translated as “grace” in English.  This word chara, as it is used in the New Testament, is not a feeling we can create within ourselves.  I believe that chara may be best explained as a state of “soul-satisfaction” that is given to us by and through God’s grace. 

In the final episode of the Emotions Series, Sherry briefly explains a strategy to help handle the ups and downs of everyday living. Acceptance and Commitment, often referred to as ACT, is an evidenced based strategy to strengthen us in our abilities to decipher and make choices within our values, rather than making choices in a reactive manner.  David wrote a number of psalms which clearly exemplify the strategy, as did Elijah, Hannah, and Jesus. 

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Paul modeled this, and research shows us this is so effective. If you are interested in the evidence behind this it comes down to a neuroscience finding