What is Faith?

Pilate asked, "What is truth?" The question came in a fit of pique. He was frustrated. For those who find their lives blocked by circumstances outside their control, a similar question arises out of sheer desperation, when they are told to 'have faith'.

What is faith? Or, how is it that what I call 'faith' turns out to be pretty ineffectual in sorting my problems out?

We have a definition of faith in Hebrews ch.11 - it is not merely an intellectual assent to a set of spiritual facts. It points to a reality that transcends the evidence of our material universe; a certainty that has its roots in the revealed will of the Creator and Sustainer; the One we have the temerity to call Father.