15 June 2009

Habit begets desire: faith

Ok, ok, I know 'begets' is a big word, so I looked it up for you and it's definition is: to cause
So habit causes desire. Ok, now that you're with me, this entry talks about Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter.
When you're a kid, your mum makes you apologise to your brother, whether or not you think you did something wrong, and whether or not you mean it. Why? Because it is the easiest way to reconcile, and it is the right thing to do. You learn that when you're an adult, but when you're a kid it seems like the biggest injustice ever, and you feel pretty smug that you don't mean it anyway. So you learn as you grow up that it's important to do things that are right, even when you don't understand, because you are acting in faith that it is the right thing to do, and that your mum knows what she's talking about when she says it's good.

Faith, as you know, is doing things whether or not you know what is going to happen, doing things that don't make sense, because you believe them to be what is right. That's faith. And in Hebrews 11, the example used is Abraham, and how he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. First of all that would take immense strength and courage, and trust in God. But when you think about it, before that day God had told Abraham that it was through Isaac that his promises would be met. So God appeared to contradict himself - he had said Isaac would fulfil the promises to Abraham, but here he was asking Abraham to kill Isaac. Yet Abraham went ahead and trusted God, trusted that God knew what he was doing, that his plan was perfect. And it was.

Faith isn't just doing what you know will be good in the long run - it's doing anything and everything God asks, despite 'obvious' flaws in his plan. So the point of 'habit begets desire' is that even if you don't want to read your bible, for example, and you figure what's the point of reading the bible even when you have no interest and aren't getting anything out of it today, do it anyway. God knows what he's doing, and if you have a routine of reading, then eventually you will do it because you want to, because you like the routine and the consistency in which God speaks to you through it. How else do you fall in love with God? It's one thing to love him as a father, a friend, but what about a lover? You don't fall in love with God when you don't spend time with him. If you have a habit of loving him, you will have a desire of being in love with him. Habit causes desire.

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