FutureChurch

Telling someone to simply believe and it will be so seems problematic to me, and an awful lot like The Secret. Initially it might seem like an encouragement to believe in the power of G-d as a demonstration of childlike faith and a refutation to the wisdom of the world because we are entering into a trusting relationship with G-d the same way a child would. However, if/when G-d doesn't do what the person is trusting Him to do, the person is left to draw the following conclusions: either G-d doesn't love me (or worse), or I do not have enough faith (because "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" - James 1:6), or G-d is saying "No" or "Not yet."

None of these are good options, except perhaps the last one, which at least assumes that the person has a strong enough frame of belief to know that G-d loves them and that they have enough faith.

In addition, we cannot have faith that G-d will help bring about what we're asking for without us doing something to help bring it about ourselves. I do not understand why some Christians say that "God does all of the work; we do none of it." I do not know why these same Christians pray, "Thine Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven," as if the only role of the Church is to pray for G-d's kingdom to come on earth while doing nothing to help usher that kingdom in themselves.

I define faith as the hope that G-d is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do (filtered through subjectivity and postmodern criticism, of course). I do not see faith as something to be employed in asking for a skill which G-d then imparts, which is why we make a category mistake if we pray, "Lord, help me score 100 runs today," when we haven't been to cricket practice in 3 years! It's also a category mistake thinking it's "faith" to ask G-d for knowledge: "Lord, give me the knowledge to pass my maths exam." (Pity, that last one - maybe I wouldn't have failed 2nd year maths at varsity then!).

So what is faith, then? "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1. Faith is a belief, and as such is operating at a higher logical level than an intervention (which is a skill), which is why we can involve G-d (via faith) in a modality (like coaching or therapy) and have that process be consistent with Christianity.

Prayer is an action we can take which can be imbued with faith (again, they're operating at two different levels).

Now, if only there was a model we could use to explain this...