Lately, I've been thinking a lot about faith.

This isn't some abstract theological musing. Rather, it's shaken out of the dynamics of my life, radically affecting every aspect of my thought and existence.

A prophetic word in church, coupled with a phone call from my brother, really sharpened my perspective recently. This is what I believe it comes down to, for me as a Christian, and in some sense, for every human being:

There are two alternate realities, two alternate perspectives, we can live and believe in.

One is the tangible, observable, measurable reality of the physical world. What happens in our lives. World events. The people around us.

The other, is what God says. Truth. Reality as spoken by the Creator of the universe, the intangible, unmeasurable, unseeable perspective of God. His promises. Revelation.

Let me put it in concrete terms.

In one reality, I can look at my failing bank account and the fact that I have less than $20 to my name, and I can despair. I can conclude that God has forsaken me, that he isn't taking care of me, and that I might run out of resources before he comes through.

Or, I can remember Jesus' words in Matthew 6 that our Heavenly Father has promised to always care for those who pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and not to worry about tomorrow.

When life becomes extraordinarily difficult, people hate me for no reason, and everything seems harder than it ought to be, I can despair. I can conclude that God has it in for me, that he's abandoned me, that nothing will ever get better and I will never see any good.

Or, I can choose to believe the promise of Romans 8:28 that everything, no matter how unpleasant, is being worked out for good in a believer's life by a God who knows our good far better than we do. I can trust the rest of Romans 8 that God's love is a greater, triumphing reality, and I can experience that love in such a way that I am filled with joy and peace in the middle of the most troublesome circumstances.

I can look at someone who's wronged me and I can hate that person. I can grow twisted and crippled with bitterness and seek revenge. I can be chained to that person for the rest of my life, never moving on from the event, never healing or bringing healing to others.

Or, I can forgive, knowing that Jesus forgave me, remembering that he said as I forgive, so I will be forgiven by God. I can pray for and bless that person in the total knowledge that God is in control and justice will eventually be done.

It all depends on your perspective. It all depends on where you choose to look, and what you choose to believe.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

This sounds like madness. Particularly in our post-modern, scientific world, why would anyone place their faith in a God they can't see, a heaven they can't visit, a Jesus they can't touch, and live their life based on a book whose accounts they can't independently verify, just because "God says so"?

Because, those who've done so can testify that it's truth. They find a reality just as real as and in fact greater than the one around us, and that God keeps his promises. This changes everything. They live differently because they're captivated by the unseen but the true.

Faith is the validator. When you believe, you experience. When you act on God's revelation, you find him to be faithful. If you never step out, you'll never know it for yourself, though you may see it in the lives of others.

God is looking for those who will take him at his word. Faith is the beginning and ending, the whole foundation of our relationship with God. In fact, Hebrews 11 goes on to tell us, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

Abraham is the supreme example of faith, held up in the Bible as the father of all those who believe. He received a promise from God that his wife Sarah would bear a son, and that his offspring would someday number more than the stars of the sky.

Abraham and his wife were both old. Sarah was barren. Abraham could have looked at that reality, and laughed off what God said. He could have gone on living his life as if God had never spoken, worshipping idols, growing bitter, disillusioned, and cynical.

Instead, Abraham believed. He chose the reality he couldn't see or taste or touch or handle or measure or experience. He believed. And 25 long years later, he received the promise and his son Isaac was born.

The reality that God spoke was the truth.

Which reality you live in, literally, makes all the difference.

What are the effects of living in these two realities?

I'm speaking as a Christian, to Christians. And I'm speaking from my own experience.

If I live in the reality of the world around me and my circumstances, trusting what I see and what I hear, rather than the reality spoken to me by God, I despair. I lose heart. I grow discouraged. I get depressed, angry, and hardened. I close off, to God and to other people. I stop praying, because I believe it does no good. I stop ministering, because people don't change. I don't worship, because what's the good of worshipping a God who doesn't do what he's promised. I start living for myself, taking care of number one, rather than for God and for others. I give in to my addictions, because if God can't meet my needs for pleasure and significance, surely something else can.

But when I believe what God's promised, I decide to act as if what he says is true, I bank on the reality I can't see—I am filled with joy. I know peace, and assurance that is greater than any reality this world holds. I experience in an unmeasurable but nonetheless unmistakable way, his presence and his pleasure. I step out in faith, praying for people, speaking to them, seeing their lives change. I do what God says based on the belief that he'll come through. Instead of being defeated and discouraged by the realities of this dark and horrible world, I start to see the kingdom of God break in and make a difference, transforming darkness into light and death into life. I say no to my own evil desires and obey God, trusting him to meet my needs.

That's my reality.

What God says is true. And those will be vindicated who choose to believe it. Faith sometimes, often, always, requires patient persistence through long stretches of time and circumstances that defy everything you've heard God say. It requires deferrence of instant gratification in favour of waiting for God's reward. It means trusting God through hell and high water, yet seeing him bring good out of every trial. It doesn't mean that what we want will happen, or when we want it; in fact, often the opposite.

It's not easy. But it's the only way.

We do have a choice. Let us not be mistaken. What God says will happen. But which reality we accept will determine on which side of it we fall.

I know which one I want to live in. I want to have my eyes so filled with the truth of Jesus that I don't stumble back into the dark and misleading alleyways of doubt and fear. I've lived in the first reality for far too long.

Peter summed it up most perfectly when he wrote to some first-century believers:

"These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:7-9, emphasis added)