Faith and Confession

This morning I missed church, so I watched a little “church” on TV. I’ve always enjoyed Pastor Fred Price of Ever Increasing Faith Ministries. I’ve not always agreed with him, but his sermons are always challenging, uplifting and reasonable. This morning, he was talking about how to increase our faith, an area I have always struggled with. For me, thinking is how I relate to God (as demonstrated by the inordinate amount of BS in this blog). I most strongly connect with my “faith” through rational means. This, of course, leads to all sorts of problems if I over-weight my time and energy in religious philosophy without taking the time to connect emotionally, practically and relationally.

The most striking thing about Pastor Price’s sermon today was a point about confession. “My faith,” he said, “will never rise above the level of my confession.” How true! For myself, I often have a real hard time believing the God of the Universe cares, much less loves, me. Though I tend not to dwell on my circumstances, I do not necessarily always believe what the Bible has to say about me and my relation to God. I am by nature too much of a skeptic and, as I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t always find doubt to be a necessary evil.

I need to remind myself of this, because faith, despite my unhealthy fixation with rational religion, is really the only thing that leads one to God and faith is only exercised by what we confess in faith.