Why does God value faith?

Answer 1

I like the way he put it in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for."

Faith is what shows us the evidence of things that we would not otherwise see. If I believe in God then everywhere I look I am going to see evidence of his existence. My faith allows me to see that evidence. If I do not believe in God, then no amount of evidence is ever going to convince me. I will always be able to find an argument ot a reason not to "see" that evidence.

So it is not that God values faith over "fact" or "science" or "proof" or anything of those other things. It is that God is smart enough to know that if you do not start with "faith", you will never see the "facts", "science", "proof", etc. Your own will, stubborness, determination, or whatever will keep you for seeing it.

That is why God ask for people's hearts, not their heads. If he can get the heart, the head comes along for free.

Is there a value to faith? Yes. That is the second part of the verse. Faith "is the substance of things hoped for". Until a person has faith in something, they will not work for or towards it. If you are convinced that your life will never be worth anything, then odds are it never will. But if you have faith that you can do, be it, have it, etc., then you will begin to take the steps needed to get it. You will go to school, you will try for the better job, you will start your own business, or whatever. Your "faith" will enable you to give "substance" to your dream.

Same with faith in God. If you believe that he is there and able to help you, then you will being to do the things he says to do. You will be able to find the strength to overcome that sin or habit that has been binding you. You will have the courage to try the challenges he lays before you. You will have the "faith" to bring substance to your dreams.

That is the reason that God values faith. It is what first allows you to see him, and then to serve him. Hebrew 11:6 "Those who come to God must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him".

Answer 2

If God is God, God has no need of our faith to be who God is. Our faith or faithlessness does not increase or diminish God's nature or existence. Faith is offered by God as an opportunity to live in relation to his Divine Life. The benefit is entirely to ourselves, God loses nothing in the offer, and gains nothing that he doesn't already possess. This is all an indication, as least for classical Christian theology, that God's essential nature is infinite love. The act of faith illumines that God loves us as other, because it is his nature to love, and God does so, not out of any need or ulterior motive, but simply because love is constituative of God's nature. One may or may not believe these things, they are, after all, rooted in a particular revelation-- but that faith must be offered and received in freedom is what constitutes the act of faith as a virtue.

Answer 3

With out faith there would be no Gods. They sort of go hand in hand. But I think a true God wouldn't care one way or the other. I doubt They are that insecure.

Answer 4

assuming that there is a God, no one on Earth could possibly know the values of the all powerful being, they can only assume that their God is American or Iranian or whatever nationality and that he/she/it shares their same ideas about religion or values.

which is ludicris, since it is highly unlikely that an otherwordly being would share any earthly or mortal values with us, and would most likely have a set of values more appropriate for it's species

Answer 5

Faith in something that cannot be proven has always been my problem. It's so easy to prove it. Would you do that to your own child? Not give him an honest answer when he asks a question?

Answer 6

The concept of god lives only in the mind of those who choose to believe in it, so this question is meaningless..!!

Answer 7

God values faith because it is the supreme assertion of human thought. The human mind is capable of knowing much, but there is even more that we can believe. God values this capability because it not only shows our capacity for imagination and creativity, but it also reflects the level of trust we have in him. Have you ever had a situation where your parents just asked you to trust them and follow through on something even though you had doubts about it or had no experience with it? This is what God is asking from us with our faith. God finds it pleasing that we can trust him without having all the facts or having evidence handed to us on a silver platter. Eventually we will grow spiritually and experientially and we will have the capacity to know more. God will then reveal more to us. Faith will always be required because God is infinite. No matter how much we learn and know about him, there is still an infinite amount more to learn. Faith is our way of telling God that we know he loves us and wants the best for us and that we love him back and trust him.

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102:1.5 God is so all real and absolute that no material sign of proof or no demonstration of so-called miracle may be offered in testimony of his reality. Always will we know him because we trust him, and our belief in him is wholly based on our personal participation in the divine manifestations of his infinite reality.

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102:6.4 Faith transforms the philosophic God of probability into the saving God of certainty in the personal religious experience. Skepticism may challenge the theories of theology, but confidence in the dependability of personal experience affirms the truth of that belief which has grown into faith.

102:6.5 Convictions about God may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the individual becomes God-knowing only by faith, through personal experience. In much that pertains to life, probability must be reckoned with, but when contacting with cosmic reality, certainty may be experienced when such meanings and values are approached by living faith. The God-knowing soul dares to say, "I know," even when this knowledge of God is questioned by the unbeliever who denies such certitude because it is not wholly supported by intellectual logic. To every such doubter the believer only replies, "How do you know that I do not know?"

102:6.6 Though reason can always question faith, faith can always supplement both reason and logic. Reason creates the probability which faith can transform into a moral certainty, even a spiritual experience. God is the first truth and the last fact; therefore does all truth take origin in him, while all facts exist relative to him. God is absolute truth. As truth one may know God, but to understand -- to explain -- God, one must explore the fact of the universe of universes. The vast gulf between the experience of the truth of God and ignorance as to the fact of God can be bridged only by living faith. Reason alone cannot achieve harmony between infinite truth and universal fact.

102:6.7 Belief may not be able to resist doubt and withstand fear, but faith is always triumphant over doubting, for faith is both positive and living. The positive always has the advantage over the negative, truth over error, experience over theory, spiritual realities over the isolated facts of time and space. The convincing evidence of this spiritual certainty consists in the social fruits of the spirit which such believers, faithers, yield as a result of this genuine spiritual experience. Said Jesus: "If you love your fellows as I have loved you, then shall all men know that you are my disciples."

Answer 8

Because it is how we are able to manifest Gods rewards in our lives

Answer 9

Because otherwise he wouldnt' be able to get anyone to believe in him.

Answer 10

He's lazy. He doesn't want to work to make people believe in him.