What is Faith?

Brothers,

Welcome to a new year. We are all in different stages of the divorce process. 

For those who are in the early stages of divorce, you may enter into this new year with fear and sadness, seeing that the path ahead looks gloomy and dark. 

For those of us who are farther along in the divorce journey, we might view this new year with excitement and the potential start or continuation of a refreshing new journey. 

Regardless of where we are in our own personal journey of recovery from divorce, none of us can effectively move forward without faith. This begs us to ask the question, what is faith? 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.” (CCC 1814).

Regardless of what denomination of Christianity we come from, there are some important takeaways for us in that paragraph. First, it's noted that faith is the virtue by which we believe in God, what he has said, and what he has revealed to us. Neither God the father or God the son promised us a life on this earth without turmoil, pain, and suffering. On the contrary, Christ asked us to pick up our cross and follow him. We are virtually guaranteed some level of pain in this lifetime. But what was promised was the opportunity for everlasting life with God. And that must be the foundation of our faith. Dale once said that being Christian gives us the insight that this earthly life is as bad as it gets, not as good as it gets. I think what he meant by that is that even if we have the best life we ever thought possible here on earth it will still pale in comparison to our eternal life with God. 

The next part of the definition of faith notes that we have free will to fully give ourselves over to God, and should we choose to give ourselves over, we then seek his will and try to do it. This is where the concept of surrender comes into play. We invite Christ into our lives and then seek to do the next right thing in a way we believe lines up with God’s will for us. I’m sure there will be future newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts on how we discover God’s will for us, but for now we can turn to a few places to seek out what God wants us to do. First, we should turn to God’s revealed word. Specifically, I’d recommend we become very familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. In this passage of the Bible, Jesus lays out in no uncertain terms the path he wants us to take. If we follow that path we can be fairly certain that we are heading in the right direction. Next, seek out God’s will through prayer, the council of other people of faith, and through sacred Tradition. The bottom line is God usually speaks in clarity. You’ll know deep inside of you (because God’s natural law is imprinted within you through the Holy Spirit) what he wants you to do next. 

Brothers, as we enter into this new year, let’s resolve to approach it with faith. Not faith that our pre-divorce financial status will be restored. Not faith that we will find a perfect romantic partner. Not faith that everything will go as we want it to go. But faith in what God has said to us and promised to us. Choose freely to use that faith to seek and follow God’s will. In doing so, you will find your ability to detach from the things of this world more easily and your inner peace will increase significantly.

As always, we are here to support you and coach you through this journey. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time by emailing [email protected] and check out all of our great recovery programs on our website. 

Yours in Christ,

Chris