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How Do We Lose Faith? You might be surprised to learn how we gain and lose faith. First and foremost, faith is not of this world. There is no way we can believe, really believe, in something without the proof of facts, unless it is given to us as a gift. Faith is walking across a bridge trusting in the engineers who designed it. Faith is walking on water because we trust in Jesus. So, faith is a leap based on trust, not on facts. This time the bridge might not hold, but we trust it will. WE believe Jesus so we walk on water, but then we look at all the storm around us and our faith weakens and we begin to sink. We turn back to Jesus and He rescues us, but chides us for doubting. I believe that faith, primarily in Jesus, is the unexplainable result of contact with the Word of God by hearing or reading, and trust is generated within us. Doubt is the absence of faith. If we doubt, we lose our faith. Doubt is the antithesis of faith and faith is the antithesis of doubt. The two are mutually exclusive like light and darkness. There are many very smart people in the world who doubt. There are also smart people in the world who trust or have faith. So who is right? Neither the one who trusts, or the one who doubts can be proved right or wrong. Its a CHOICE. That's the amazing part. WE can choose to either accept the gift of faith, or reject it. Once we reject enough times the gift of faith that is offered, we will no longer be offered the gift, and it becomes impossible after a time to even know the gift is being offered. Because we have hardened our spirit to the offer, without proof, and so we no longer have any sensitivity left to recognize the offer of the gift of faith. This gift is then taken back because we rejected it. The gift is not forced on us. Our choice is respected. How do we lose faith? We lose it by the continual rejection of the gift. Remember Jesus said it is better to never have received the gift of faith and then lose it. It is the Lord's job to offer the gift of faith or trust. It is our job to receive it or reject it. Jesus said we are blessed if receive the gift because flesh and blood has not offered us the gift, but our Father in Heaven has done it, He said. Remember faith can not be proved. Nor can doubt be proved. But, treasure the gift if we have received it. It is probably the most precious thing on earth we possess. In time, the proof will be given that the Engineer of life is trustworthy, and that our faith gift is well founded. Just because people say there is no evidence of God, or life after death, or any of the many claims of the Bible, does not prove it one way or another. There is no evidence period. There is circumstantial evidence, but not sight evidence. The gift of faith is beyond sight evidence. It is the ability to trust in what we can not see. This ability is a gift of God. Treasure it above all else. I believe we will not be disappointed and generously rewarded for receiving the gift of faith and keeping it. Me at a recent asian party in south texas. 
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This is thought provoking. Still pondering it. I hope to have a comment by tomorrow. TY and GB
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There is only one faith, the gift of God, but as you said there are many religions, the denominational man made versions. I believe we lose faith several ways. First, we lose it by never accepting the gift of trust to believe. Second, after receiving it people can later deny it by their actions, and so lose the benefit of the gift. Perhaps once saved always saved, I don't know, but still their denial of the faith by their actions is surely damaging to their life and witness.
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Thought about it a lot. I just don't know. Arminians say we can lose it, and I usually take their position, but their opposition, the Calvinists, say if you can lose it, then you never had it to begin with. I'm pretty sure it can wane at times tho. And I often have to work at keeping it up. I'd rather not take the risk of losing it entirely, if that's possible. I've always just followed what is known in theological circles as Pascal's Wager. Pascal was an 18th (?)century philosopher and mathematician, who actually wrote out mathematically why it was better to believe in God than not to. I'm not a mathematician, so I can't write it out, but the conclusion it leads to is that one has more to gain by believing, and less to lose by it too, so the logical thing for ppl to do is believe. I like this, because it demonstrates that when everything is considered, we are left with a simple choice in the matter. There may be evidence or logic for either argument, but choosing to believe is best for a person, no matter what reality turns out to be. (E.g.: I'd rather believe and not go to Heaven, than to not believe, and wind up in Hell.) GBU
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Thought about it a lot. I just don't know. Arminians say we can lose it, and I usually take their position, but their opposition, the Calvinists, say if you can lose it, then you never had it to begin with. I'm pretty sure it can wane at times tho. And I often have to work at keeping it up. I'd rather not take the risk of losing it entirely, if that's possible. I've always just followed what is known in theological circles as Pascal's Wager. Pascal was an 18th (?)century philosopher and mathematician, who actually wrote out mathematically why it was better to believe in God than not to. I'm not a mathematician, so I can't write it out, but the conclusion it leads to is that one has more to gain by believing, and less to lose by it too, so the logical thing for ppl to do is believe. I like this, because it demonstrates that when everything is considered, we are left with a simple choice in the matter. There may be evidence or logic for either argument, but choosing to believe is best for a person, no matter what reality turns out to be. (E.g.: I'd rather believe and not go to Heaven, than to not believe, and wind up in Hell.) GBU Then John the apostle says the evidence that we have made the choice to receive this gift of trust is that we are in fellowship with others who have made this same choice to receive this gift. WE can not prove anything we are saying here on the blogs. We can share 'in' our experience which is fellowship and we can share 'of' our experience which is testimony. The reason I wrote this post is that recently very smart people have been in the news and they have publicly made it known that they have chosen to not receive the gift of trust in Jesus but have chosen doubt. I ask myself how could such genius people not believe? To believe such fantastic claims as Jesus without courtroom proof, seems to me, we have help. I don't believe that anyone can or will understand what I am saying unless they too have received the gift to trust in Jesus. I am saying it is a MIRACLE to believe what Jesus claims. This is a miracle of power to believe, really believe, and trust in Jesus as Lord of Heaven and Earth, owner of the heavens and earth, Creator, preexistence, actually Deity. Really now. I have heard boastful claims before, and big bragging, but none have ever, including the insane, have ever claimed what Jesus claims. To me, it takes a miracle in each individual life to believe Him. It would take power from God to believe such things about a human being who claims to be so much more as Jesus claims about Himself. I believe this sufficient power comes to people to make a choice, to believe or not believe what Jesus claims about Himself. The truth is that the choice to believe Jesus is not logical, and it is not reasonable. It is absolutely crazy to believe such claims as Jesus unless we have an inner sense experience that is real enough to actually sense somehow that it is actually true. It is a gut experience. WE can say yes or no to it. On this choice is our destiny. My personal experience with this power is that it has stayed with me all my life. My only answer to explain why others have not this same experience is they have chosen not to accept it. Jesus described this personal experience in the parable of the sower. Only one person out of four chose to keep the experience. Even though some of the remaining three were touched by the experience, it did not impact their life much and when other choices present themselves they chose them and rejected the offer of the power to keep believing in Jesus.
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