What is the difference between faith and trust?
Discussion question for January 29, 2010.
The Christian dialect includes familiar words like “trust” and “faith”. Sometimes they act as nouns and other times as verbs. That “words have meanings” is true, but also “meanings have words.” How then do we understand faith and trust? What do they mean to you? How do they affect the way you live your life?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
It is hard to differentiate between faith and trust in the Christian vernacular, although there are some connotations based on a person’s understanding of key scriptures. As a group we found using the terms to be synonymous.
Faith was defined by the group as a) a belief or value, and b) a trust or conviction. It can be used as a noun or verb. Trust was used more toward conviction and is related to the character or reputation of the thing in which trust is placed.
The benefit of working on these definitions is to heighten our understanding of the relationship and reliance we have on the character of God. Whether it is called faith or trust, the object is the Person of God. This will include the things I believe to be true about God, things revealed and things hidden. Even more, they include the things I trust about His nature.
We talked about having faith that God will supply our needs, much like He takes care of the birds of the air. We trust His character as a Provider. Sometimes He provides in ways that are unexpected, such as giving less than we believe we need. In this case we must trust His character, that He is doing it for a good (perfect) reason whether we can comprehend it or not. Similarly, we are not just trusting Him to provide for our needs, but also trusting that He has a purpose in mind for us and will make available the opportunity to serve in that purpose.
Faith and Trust work together to give us assurance and conviction about our relationship with God. Testing our faith and proving our trust are results from getting to know God better.