Are people with religious convictions the only ones who live by faith? Some say that’s a no-brainer. The answer is yes, and by the way, anyone with religious faith has no brains.

That’s one answer. But the fact remains that every single person on the face of the earth lives by faith. Christian and atheist, Jew and agnostic. Religious and secular.

Don’t believe me? Think about a typical day in anyone’s life…

–    you go to sleep at night…and have faith that you’ll wake up in the morning
–    you wake up in the morning…and have faith that gravity will still be operating when you get out of bed
–    you take a breath…and have faith that the chemical composition of air (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other gases) has not changed since your last breath
–    you turn on the light switch…and have faith that the wires won’t catch fire behind the wall
–    you start your car…and have faith that the combustion engine under the hood won’t explode

You and I, religious or not, live by faith every minute of every day.

On September 11, 2011 we will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The people who flew planes into those buildings also had faith. A sincere faith. And they were sincerely wrong.

The question is not whether we have faith. The question is not whether that faith is sincere. The question is, who or what is the object of your faith? All faith must have an object. Some have faith in bank accounts, families, even in themselves. Some have faith in God.

For those who claim to have faith in God, is your faith in God as you want Him to be or as He revealed Himself to be? The one trustworthy source of information about who God is and how He works is the Bible, because that’s where He revealed Himself.

We have the historical evidence of God’s dealings with His people, and we have the detailed descriptions of how God described Himself with each new name and attribute in Scripture. Yahweh, Creator, Adonai, El Olam, Yahweh Jireh, El Shaddai, Savior, Redeemer. Holy, impartial, omnipotent, omniscient, light, life, rock, king, judge.

Live by faith…not in a god of your own creation, but in God as He revealed Himself. Only then will our faith have an object that is unshakeable and eternal…and will never disappoint.

Who or what is the object of your faith?