Faith Without Trust

Galatians 6:15 says that faith works by love. But it is not just the hope aspect of love that faith works by. The Greek word translated faith in the Bible is actually the noun form of the word believes or believeth in 1 Corinthians 13:7. Some Bible versions actually use the noun faith in 1 Corinthians 13:7, proceeded by a verb or preposition, instead of just using a verb. For instance, The New Living Translation says that love never loses faith.

Various modern translations, such as the New International Version, use the word trusts in this verse instead of believes. Faith works by believing and by trusting. Belief is often attributed to a thing such as a product or the circumstances of a situation. Whereas, trust in more personal in that it relates to a person or to God.

Jesus gave us one commandment in the New Testament. But that one commandment is actually divided into two commandments that work together:

34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:34
37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew 22:37-40

In a similar vein, faith works by believing and trusting. I would say that trust is a personal thing: we trust in a person or in God. Whereas belief is more attributed to God’s Word: we believe that God’s Word is true.

Prosperity teaching can become inbalanced to the point whereby it de-personalises the subject of prosperity by emphasising the believer’s efforts to confess scriptures that pertain to prosperity, rather than just simply trusting God. In a sense, this causes people to use Bible verses as a formula for prosperity. We really ought to consider using Psalms 84:11-12 as a formula for prosperity.

If you want to be blessed, instead of just confessing scriptures all the time, it would be better to take some responsibility and do what the Bible says we ought to do: walk uprightly and trust in God.

Anyone can read the Bible out loud, regardless of what his real beleifs and motives are. We should not expect to be blessed by God if our believing, thinking and expecting is not right.