Faith is TRUST, not positive thinking

Let's focus in on a few statements my opponent made, then on to my statements. THE MEANING OF FAITH In the John 9 my opponent supplied, Jesus clearly does ask about the sister's faith before performing His miracle. There are three questions to ask yourself: 1. WHY did he ask her about her faith? 2. Was His power to heal her brother dependant on her answer? 3. Did Jesus already know her answer To answer question #1, let's look at WHAT he asked her if she believed: "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" This has absolutely nothing to do with the miracle itself. So, why did He ask her that instead of "do you believe I can do this miracle?" Because He did not need her to believe in the miracle in order to do it. He wanted her to pronounce her TRUST in HIM as a person. In essence, He was asking her, "do you trust me?" That's a pretty important question to ask before moving into such a sensitive family situation. Question #2 is not clear from this passage. But, you have to ask yourself - what does the faith of someone else matter when the miracle is for YOU. So, then someone else can believe ONE YOUR BEHALF? Question #3 is answered with a simple YES if you base it on Jesus' track record of knowing peoples' hearts and thoughts throughout the Gospels. So, her answer was meaningless except to remind HERSELF that she trusted Him and for Him to reinforce that profession by doing the miracle. The miracle was about healing her brother, but even more about proving that He was trustworthy. DOES GOD REQUIRE OUR FAITH FOR A MIRACLE? My opponent stated, "Any of God miraculous signs to do to anybody, He always requires one thing, faith." I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. But, there is nothing anywhere in scripture that states that faith itself is an active ingredient in the miracle. Just that God requires us to trust Him in order for Him to get involved in our lives. Putting our trust in Him does not mean that we are constantly asking Him for things, but that we are NOT constantly asking Him for things, knowing that He is ALREADY at work. CONVINCING YOURSELF My opponent stated, "So you'll convince yourself that God won't do a thing? No, faith do not make us convince ourselves that God will do something, faith put into you that God will answer your prayer." My opponent has consistently taken the approach of moving to the opposite extreme of what I am dispelling. In other words, his argument is that if you do not have to sit around "convincing yourself that God will do something", I must mean that an individual must do the opposite like "convince yourself that He will NOT do anything." This is an erroneous position to take, since there is another alternative. The point to faith, or trust, is that you do not have to do either one of these two scenarios. You can simply have confidence that God is at work, and that He will always do the right thing. To think that you actually have to do something in order for Him to work is having more faith in YOUR ability to decide the fate of the universe, not His. FEAR PART OF HUMANITY? My opponent stated, "Fear is a part of humanity, we have nerves in our brain that when things come, we can be frightened, they were scared even before they woke Jesus up, it wasn't fear that Jesus rebuked them for, but for thinking that Jesus won't make the storm stop, the lesson is that faith can help you, faith have a power, Godly power, a conductor between us and God. Yet, the scripture my opponent is referring to clearly states: "(Mark 4:39-40) And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.4:40 And he said unto them, WHY ARE YE SO FEARFUL? HOW IS IT THAT YE HAVE NO FAITH?" Clearly Jesus was indeed rebuking their fear, and using IT as the measurement of true faith. Faith is about trusting Him and His judgment. HOPE is about waiting with baited breath to see if what He will do is what we want Him to do. Hope is important, but it is not a substitute for faith.