Why is faith important?

[ronedee]

Ask a Catholic and a Baptist about how God works, and you will get different answers. The problem is that people of different dogmas will have different ways of viewing how the whole system works. We've had different sects of Christianity killing themselves over this very thing. Ireland is not the sole example of this.

There is, however, an overwhelming amount of belief in the idea of reward and punishment. If you do good, you will get good in the end. If you do bad, you will receive bad in the end. There is also an overwhelming amount of belief in doing prayer to beg God to do something. When that something happens, God gets the credit. When it fails, well, God said no due to his mysterious ways. Either way, God wins.

Now, to say that one makes a demand of God for 10 minutes and gets fed up waiting is a pointless act, one needs to ask - "What, was God busy on the other line and I am # 11,254 in the queue?" No. The normal answer I get from this is that I have to pray for a very long time until I believe. "What, God is only around when I believe he is around? Is he like my invisible childhood friend, Sparky?" There are those who know that God will answer if you are suffering. So they will fast, sacrificing their own fat, go without sleep and spend the night praying, some beat themselves, forgo pleasures, and suffer so that God will hear them. "What, God gets off watching this, and when he has had enough he will reward you with a reply?"

And in the end, He still might say no, the highest form of sadism after making one grovel and self-inflict for a handout.

Actually, God doesn't make us do this, to be fair. It is the keepers of His special religion (insert here) who tell you what works. And when it fails, well, you didn't do it long enough, you didn't have enough faith, you haven't suffered enough, or God works in mysterious ways and sometimes he says "No."

That pretty much says it all. Although there are those who use magic charms to control God, when all else fails.

Isaiah
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, said the LORD."

The real humor here is we (as humans) chose the way it is!

Ask any true Atheist if he/she would want a God, over Free Will? i.e. Eden !
And you will get a resounding NO! And a kick to His groin for good measure.

Jesus said: "It is not me, but my Father who works through me."
And..."If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to that mountain, throw yourself in the sea and it would be done!"

So, why would God lift a finger....when you have magic charms to play with? Or Jesus' Words?

The problem with a lot of peoples prayers are that they don't include God's Will. Its prayers that are self-serving, unreasonable and (in some cases) last minute!

In sincere Faith.... Pray for God's Will to be done? You will always have an answer!

Rom 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. AMEN!