When is faith not faith?

When is faith not faith?  I've been trying to define that for years.  A long time ago, someone made the statement that faith is not a noun.  It is a verb.  That resonated.  However, defining the difference became a lot harder to do.  Through the years, I've thought that sometimes it seems as though our faith is really our fears.

For example, when we lived in Chicago and Aurora, Colorado, I saw to it that I got the walks shoveled very early in the morning.  I didn't want anyone to fall and sue us.  That wasn't love for my neighbors, that was fear.  By the same token, do I do the same thing to God?  Do I obey Him, read my Bible, pray, etc., because I love Him and want to draw close to Him, or am I doing what I'm supposed to do because I don't want to go to hell?  If it's the latter, it's not faith.  It's fear and self-preservation.  Salvation is so very much more than fire insurance.

When I hear someone tell me, "I have my faith," what do they mean?  Do they mean they are actively pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ, seeking to know Him, and not just His blessings?  Are they seeking the Only One Who can comfort in difficult times and expressing it in an unclear way?  Or are they saying they do all the things a Christian has been taught to do and they're trusting the dictates of their traditions and loyalty to the name on their church door?

This morning, as I was reading my Bible, I found a verse of Scripture that says it all so clearly.  How many times have I read that verse and took no note of it?  50? 60?  More?  I have no clue.  Job 4:6 says, "Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope?"  That's in the English Standard Version.

In the NIV it says, "Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?"

Beside phrase a of  the verse in the NIV, I have written, "fear of God vs. faith in God."  Beside phrase b of the verse, I have written "faith in self and works."

It's entirely possible I'm misunderstanding Eliphaz's message to Job, but the message I received is that I need to constantly check why I do what I do and for Whom I do it.

I realize we are expected to have a reverential fear (awe) of God.  But, I'm not sure that's the kind of fear that's being lived today, at least among American Christians.  We are being bombarded with culture changes that are not only rocking our society, but endangering us as Christians. Supposedly, Governor Huckabee stated that legalizing homosexuality could make Christianity illegal.  He may sound extreme, but I can see the thought process clearly.  Any homosexual who wants to work or worship in churches that preaches God's Word would consider the truth "hate speech."  Face it, there's not a day goes by that we do not hear God's or Jesus' holy names taken in vain, but if I mention God or Jesus in a reverential and public way, I could be arrested.

Then, too there's the threat of radical Islam.  People are dying the world over for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Will it come to America?  Megan Kelly had a woman on last night who was nearly beheaded by a man Megan Kelly believes is a jihadist.  More than a dozen died in Ft. Hood, Texas.  There have been others.  Worst, we seem to have forgotten 9/11.  

Unfortunately, there's a lot of hand wringing and whining going on among Christians today and I admit I, at times, am just as guilty.  Beside the verse in the ESV (the one I'm now reading) I have written "Prayer Request," and dated it.  Lord, whatever happens, just keep me faithful.  You are Worthy.