On Faith and Belief

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love: - Ephesians 3:17

How can you believe if you do not have faith? You say you believe in God, but how much faith do you have in Him. While Jesus walked on this earth He knew that His Apostles believed in him yet He always reprimanded them "Ye men of little faith". You may wonder what is the difference between Belief and Faith. I will try to illustrate the point with a short story: -

There was this a tightrope walker, who was so good that he could walk between two twenty stories building on a tight rope with a balancing pole. 

Thousands of people would watch him perform this breathtaking feat. After he walked across the building he would have his close assistant sit on his shoulder and he would proceed to walk across the building.

Everyone watched in rapt attention as he performed this breathtaking feat. At the end they all gave him a thunderous applause. He asked them whether they believed that he could do it again. The crowd shouted, "Yes, we believe that you can!"

Acknowledging the crowd's belief in him, he asked if anyone from the crowd would volunteer to get on his shoulder? All of a sudden the crowd became silent. No one volunteered.

This is the difference between Belief and Faith. We can believe what we see. In the above story, the crowd believed in the tightrope walker because they saw him perform the feat. But when he asked them who would want to get on his shoulder everyone became silent. You see, the crowd had Belief in his ability but their Faith in him was weak. 

Think about it. Faith is more than an act of trust. Faith in Christianity is based in and on the work and teachings of Jesus Christ. In Hinduism Śrāddha (ITRANS: shraddhA) is translated as faith in Sanskrit. In Islam, faith (iman) is complete submission to the will of God, which includes belief, profession and the body's performance of deeds, consistent with the commission as vicegerent on Earth, all according to God's will. In the Bahá'í Faith, faith is ultimately the acceptance of the divine authority of the Manifestations of God. Faith is an important constituent element of the teachings of the Buddha. Same with Judaism and Sikhism. St. Augustine of Hippo and Alvin Plantinga, hold that all of our beliefs rest ultimately on beliefs accepted by faith.