Halfhearted Faith 

   “As it is, since you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3: 16) 

   Faith is a gift of God and He will give us a strong, bold faith if we will accept it.  However, like all of God’s gifts, He will not force it upon us, we must decide whether our faith will be a fire within us or lukewarm and weak.

   It seems that we have drifted away from the fundamentals of faith in many ways.  We speak of the “desire” of baptism, rather than actual baptism as the path to salvation.  The sincere desire for baptism may be sufficient as a last minute conversion on one’s deathbed, but it is not the baptism of which Christ spoke when He charged His disciples to, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 28: 19).

   There are various other indications that faith has diminished in many ways.  Attendance at Mass is down, belief in the true presence is down, repentance and confession is down.  All of these are signs of a lukewarm faith that is growing even colder.  What few embers remain are fading.

   The truths of Christ and the will of God must become the prime mover in our lives if our faith is as it should be.  We cannot be “cafeteria” Christians, choosing which articles of faith we will accept and which we won’t.  Such an attitude is tantamount to the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.  We want to become our own god rather than placing our faith in the one true God.

   Jesus summed it up very clearly when He said, “Have faith in God.” (Mark 11: 22).  Without a powerful faith that guides our life, we can never walk the path that leads to heaven.