The Faith Within Us…

May we look further for a moment at a conclusion already arrived at: that every man has more faith within himself than he sometimes supposes—not only faith in tangible and touchable factors and forces, but faith also in the unseen, untouchable intangibles, and in the eternal future. It was meant that men should live in part by faith; and even the cynic has more faith than he himself sometimes supposes.

One evidence of our faith is that all of us do some planning for the future. We do not, not any of us, do all our living altogether in the present or the past; and any thought for the future carries with it an element of faith.

Another evidence is the inherent awareness within us of our own enduring identity, of the perpetuation of personality by which we are and always shall be distinguishable from all others. The evidence is within and all around us: we cannot imagine ourselves as being nothing. We cannot imagine ourselves as being anything except ourselves. All the yearnings we have, all the awareness within, all the reason, law and order—our intelligence, talents, personality, character and all the intimations of immortality within us—all give evidence, assurance, certainty, of the eternal plan and purpose of Him who made us in His image.

This faith inborn within us was placed there for a purpose: to help to give us an awareness of whence we came, and why we’re here, and what we can become. And all the unessential things with which we sometimes so much load our lives, the fineries and fashions, the elaborate equipment of comfort and convenience, the many things which most men have never known, could all be missing, and still life would be meaningful beyond measure because the things that matter most, our lives, our loved ones, continue always and forever.

It is this faith which is tin the fact “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”; it is this faith that sustains us in our failures and frustrations, in discouragement, in sorrow and sickness; it is this faith that assures us of the love and wisdom and fairness and justice of a loving Father, whose purpose is to bring to pass our happiness and peace and everlasting progress. It is this faith that gives us patience to wait for the ultimate, unseen answers. Thank God for faith which grows to greater faith, for faith by which men can and do endure in faithfulness and faith.