In What Are You Placing Your Faith?

All my life I have observed it. I have read about it as a child from well-meaning people in poems and pithy sayings, in inspirational books and articles. I have had it explained by friends and loved ones and heard it discussed by adults on countless occasions all through my life.

The “it” that I am referring to is faith. If you have it, keep it, believe in it, rest on it, rely upon it, hope in it – you will be assured of heaven when you die. These are the statements of people all over the world. Faith in God as we know Him or think Him to be, even faith in faith itself is thought to be enough to give many people a happy afterlife as long as they are sincere.

I have observed that many have an uncanny ability to invent or create or make up a philosophy about God and what it takes to achieve heaven and then rest completely in that belief! It is as if they have put total confidence in their reasoning, which they see as perfectly valid and, therefore, can now live and die in peace.

I have officiated at more than 80 funerals. (A number of those who passed away had little or no religious affiliation.)  I have heard the last words or nearly the last words of scores of individuals over the course of my life. I have discussed and debated the issue of afterlife with many over the years. What I continue to discover is that way too many people are way too content with believing the imaginations of their own minds. Consider this: Your faith in something is only as valid as the object of your faith. If you place your faith in blackjack cards totaling 16, perhaps you will beat the dealer; perhaps not. If you place your faith in lucky stars, a rabbit’s foot, or fortune cookies, well…good luck! If one places his or her faith in parents’ prayers, religious rituals, a clergy’s blessings, or good deeds outweighing the bad – then these are the objects on which one hangs his or her eternal destiny. Too many people imagine a God who agrees with their faith construct without sufficient evidence for its validity! This is literally playing with fire!

Here is what I think is happening in the human mind: As creatures created in the image of God, we all have a conscience. This conscience possesses a “moral oughtness,” that is, a sense that we ought to be behaving a certain way. When we fall short of what we believe to be right, we experience guilt. Most people also have a sense that there is more to life than what we experience in this body and that we will have to give an account to God after we die. So, in order to live at peace with ourselves, we develop philosophies, beliefs, or standards to measure our relationship with God. It is evident that millions of individuals somehow rationalize a “way to be saved” to convince themselves that they will go to heaven when they die. 

Now, to be honest, we all place our faith in what we believe to be true. My study of the Bible has convinced me that faith in the person of Jesus Christ is the only way to be assured of having a right relationship with the One who made me—and the confidence of eternal life in heaven after I take my last breath. In what or whom are you placing your faith? Be as sure as you can be that the object of your faith is powerful enough to truly give you peace with God! Consider this: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 5:1

John Wallace Miller