"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. " - Matthew 17:20 The following is my understanding of the concept of Faith. Faith is a compound of 3 things, viz. Trust, Belief, and Obedience. Even within these, there are various other distinctions to be made such as belief in vs. belief that, etc... In the following rant of mine, I plan on working with a concept of faith, that more or less relies on our everyday notions of trust and belief. I dont think that a more fine-tuned notion is necessary for the purposes of discussion. The Mechanism of Faith - Four Possibilities - (1)Possibility 1: You believe/trust, that God will help you pick up a large rock. Consequently, you are able to pick up the rock. The Faith of the Centurion situation. (2)Possibility 2: You do not believe that God will help you pick up that rock. Consequently, you are not able to pick up the rock. (3)Possibility 3: You lack faith enough to lift a rock, yet you still lift the rock. This happens sometimes. (4) Possibiility 4:You believe, and are filled with faith to the brim, and yet are unable to lift the rock ? Why would that happen ? Here's a chart to help you get a clearer picture: YOUR POSSIBILITIES FAITH DOES THE ROCK LIFT ? Possibility 1 + yes Possibility 2 - no Possibility 3 - yes Possibility 4 + no My comments regarding the above: re: Possibility # 1 - (1) is the ideal situation. This is what everyone would like to see happen. re: Possibility # 2 - No Faith = Nothing happens. Isnt this a bit odd though ? Does ones ability to perform A or ~A boil down to ones state of faith and faith only ? Obviously theres gotta be more to it than that. Is it possible to have faith in faith, that isfaith in the concept of faith ? re: Possibility # 3 - Sometimes you lack the faith to pick up the, and yet you do wind up doing it. Why ? My best guess is that, perhaps it is tied in to Gods will. God had wanted you to lift the rock all along, because He had in mind for something else to be accomplished. i.e. God would rather you have had faith and then do A, so that B might happen, but since you were cowering in fear and filled with doubt, God had to get you to do A, Himself, so that B might come about. re: Possibility # 4 - You have faith, but nothing results. Why would this happen ? I would say that this is because: (1) Perhaps, you didnt really have faith. You were just exercizing positive thinking. (2) Your faith was misdirected. It should not have been concerned with the specific fact that God will help you lift the rock, but rather the general fact that God is in control, is omnipotent, trustworthy and will come through for you in the end. (3) Lifting the rock was never part of Gods plan. You somehow did not catch on to that. He was scratching His head trying to figure out why you were trying to pick up the damn thing ! He never wanted you to do that. But then the question arises. How could you have had faith then ? Faith to lift up the rock. Where did your faith come from ? Did your faith originate in you ? or God ? If it originated from God, then why would God give you faith to do something contrary to his will ? Moreover, does all true faith come from God ? If all true faith comes from God, then are you doing what You want to do or are you simply doing what God wants you to do ? Whats the point in having faith, if it meant that you could only do things that God desired for you to do ? The desire wasnt genuinely yours. Also tied into this ... In the Bible, God seems to be pretty extravagant in telling you to ask for things. What kind of a Father takes his son to the store and says: "Son, choose absolutely any bike that you want. Only its got to be the beautiful blue one in that corner."