“Wherefore...[a man] cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God save the meek and lowly in heart;
In the New Testament, when Jesus says that he is meek and lowly, the words there are “πραΰς” (praus) and “ταπεινὸς” (tapeinos) Which translate as “gentle” and “lowly”.
I think that means that there is no room for assumption or cockiness in the kind of faith and hope that God desires. I think that means that whenever our faith becomes focused on achieving certain, hoped for outcomes or recognition of the rightness or our desires, to the detriment of our gentle awareness and treatment of others, our faith is not of God. And whenever our faith fails to include humility and a willingness to receive, graciously, something that is given that is not what we wished for, we’ve got some learning to do.
Positive mental attitudes and focused confidence on desired outcomes, can be helpful sometimes to some people.
But they are not faith.
I believe that you can save yourself a lot of confusion if you understand that.
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