Last month I mentioned faith in passing - and tried a very quick definition. This month I want to meditate about faith in a little more depth.

Paul tells us that faith is a gift from God.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
(Ephesians 2,v8)

Any one who knows they have experienced faith will reinforce this. I know what sequence of events led up to my becoming a Christian (for you see I am a lapsed atheist).

It was at university, in my second year, and I had met a young lady who was a Christian. I was adamant about how nonsensical such a view was. She introduced me to a clergyman, and I offered to debate the matter with him. He agreed, but suggested we discuss something specific, and recommended I read the gospel of John. So to qualify for an argument, and with the strongest scepticism I could muster, hoping to find all sorts of nonsense in this ancient text, I began reading the gospel of John. And the barriers in my mind were assaulted. Somehow this story had the ring of truth. When I finally met with the cleric again, I had to confess I did not want to argue against the Man from that book. He suggested I followed Him instead, which I did, and with a simple prayer committed my life to Him.

Now I cannot explain how this conviction arose that what I had been reading had somehow the 'ring of truth'. But it had. I had to recognise this as an objective fact. Whether I liked it or not, there was a conviction in my mind, and I can recall it with great clarity forty years after it took place.

Another thing I cannot explain, but do experience, is the absolute conviction that the universe we live in is the direct result of the creative fiat of God. I have examined the scientific evidence extensively, both from the atheistic materialism viewpoint and from what is usually called creation science. My mind is convinced, intellectually, but beyond this there is a realisation that my faith in 'creation' is a gift. It goes beyond the examination of evidence, though not counter to it.

Who can explain faith? Take this narrative, for example, of an encounter with Jesus, which illustrates the power of faith.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, `Who touched me?'" But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
(Mark 5, 24-34)

Who or what produced such faith in the mind of this woman? Only she knows. But the faith was real, and the outflow of power called forth by that faith was sensed by Jesus. Faith seems to have a power all of its own.

So if you sense the emergence of faith, sit up and take notice. Something real is happening in your soul. Seek out some one who understands faith, and listen to their advice. Your faith may need nurturing, and certainly will grow if nurtured. And you will count it a true blessing.