Put in the simplest terms, faith is seeking out and living according to a greater understanding of reality. It is consciously desiring, searching for, and acting to obtain specific outcomes.
Faith is the process by which outcomes are obtained. It consists of the mapping of cause (action) to effect (outcome), the reasons we have to believe the mapping, and the desire we have to obtain the expected outcome (see Figure 1). Faith is a process because each component of faith is continually updated and improved as we gain understanding through experience.
Faith is not limited to religion. A variety of historical and cultural circumstances mean that the sources we have that describe it are explicitly religious, but this does not limit its application to only religious circumstances. When we read scriptures that describe faith, we ought to attempt to apply them as broadly as possible, recognizing that they were phrased in religious terms to garner the greatest comprehension of a lesseducated populace that had a pre-existing, largely-shared understanding of God and the gospel.
There is nothing mystical about faith. It is as tangible as turning a screw or pumping water.
Faith is a mechanism of power. It yields outcomes beyond what would otherwise occur through new or greater belief—new actions based on better-informed desire and superior reason.
Faith is a process. It is not so much something you have , but something you do. Faith is to think in terms of what is possible, to be accurate about where you really are, to design a realistic, detailed path from where you stand to where you want to go, to execute that path, and to revise it as you learn more about reality and about yourself. Faith means daring to dream of outcomes that would otherwise not happen, searching for a path to obtain them, and exercising both sufficient adherence and effort to obtain them.
Faith is much more than an optional strategy in life. Faith is a principle that drives all situations, whether we classify them as secular or spiritual. All good outcomes in life are obtained through faith , no matter how secular they may seem.