Faith vs. Trust?

I read something yesterday that suggested that trust is a better word for our relationship with God than is faith. Faith is part of the name of many churches and organizations, but most don't recognize what it means. The writer pointed that out and suggested that trust indicates the level of faith we need in relationship to God. He suggested that trust goes beyond faith. That trust had to do with the person of God, and how trustworthy He is, as well as how knowable He is. It was in the Foreword to a book that seemed to indicate that trust would result in our knowing God better (leaving the impression that faith might not). Most of what I read in the foreword and the author's preface made me want to read the book. It was written by one of my favorite contemporary authors. However, if I understood the foreword correctly, I gotta say I disagree.

Trust is not a better word than faith. The problem is that we have allowed "faith," like many words that are part of Biblical Christianity to become so overused and misused and even abused, that they no longer carry the significance in our discourse that they should. Rather than looking to alternative words, we should seek to better understand and reclaim the words that were foundational in the Christian relationship with God. I think faith is one of them.

It's partly the focus my He Is a Rewarder manuscript. Rather than building toward knowing God, I start there. Knowing God is the starting place. It is foundational for our faith. True, as our faith matures, we move toward knowing Him even better, and that serves to increase our faith. It is both starting point and result.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is impossible to please God without it. It is the "sense" by which we experience the spiritual, as our other 5 senses allow us to experience the physical. Faith involves resting in Him. It comes from knowing Him, and accepting that He cares about me as an individual. (He is, and He is a rewarder). Faith in the Greek New Testament is both a noun and a verb. In English, we general translate the verb as "believe," because we have no verb for "faithing." As a result, we often fail to realize that faith is an action. As a further result, because belief and believe are used in much broader, non-spiritual ways, the concept of faith also becomes somewhat diluted.

Faith, in some ways is a synonym for other words we find in Scripture - like believe, trust, abide, wait, rest. In another sense, I think it is more than that. It is the sum of all the best connotations of each of these other words. None of them by itself is an adequate synonym. None of them can replace it. All of them help us understand faith more completely.

Let's don't give up on our dialect. Let's don't stop using certain words because the world uses them differently, denigrates them, makes fun of them, or just plain can't understand them. Let's make sure we understand them and lovingly share the insights we gain from them. We don't have to use a Christianese dialect that no one can understand, but these words have meaning and when rightly understood and communicated should help us, and others, understand the incredible, relentless, loving tenderness of the God who is and who is a rewarder.