The necessity of confidence was constantly taught by Jesus. He showed that there are many outcomes that simply can’t come to pass without it. For example:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. (Matthew 21:21)
Note how Jesus did not say “believe that you can command trees and mountains, and it shall be done.” He said “ if ye have faith, and doubt not...” If you have insufficient reasons to believe that the trees and mountains will obey you, they won’t.
Jacob explained that this kind of confidence can only come through going through many cycles of learning more and acting accordingly:
Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. (Jacob 4:6)
Both faith and knowledge provide confidence, but the difference is found in its source.
Faith draws confidence from rational thought. Through the mental processing of information from any of various sources, the faithful person comes to the point where they can say that they have sufficient reasons to believe that a certain set of actions will lead to a certain outcome to the extent that they are willing to act accordingly.
Knowledge provides confidence from physical experience. The individual recalls what they have seen or experienced and assumes that repetition of the conditions will yield the same result.
The domain of knowledge-based confidence is the physical world. The domain of faith-based confidence is the realm of thought.
Faith is a mechanism of action, but it is not the only mechanism for action. Actions come from faith, but they can also come from carnal knowledge.
Carnal knowledge doesn’t mean secular or temporal knowledge. All knowledge comes from God. Carnal knowledge, rather, is the subset of knowledge that excludes knowledge that comes from thought alone. Animals act almost exclusively via carnal knowledge. Of all God’s creations, humans are the most gifted in our ability to think abstractly and critically. However, no one forces us to use these faculties. We are completely able to act no different than animals, and many people choose to do exactly that.
Neither knowledge nor faith are immune from limitations in understanding or perception. History is replete with examples of human knowledge that was incorrect or incomplete, and we can presume that much of what we consider to be sure knowledge today is likewise incorrect or incomplete. Similarly, much of what people have done and continue to do based on faith was and is incorrect or incomplete.
While we can’t prevent incorrect or incomplete beliefs that are based on our best, honest understanding, we certainly can and should minimize the influence of beliefs based on insufficient reasons—whether mental or physical—and outright abort beliefs that are clearly contradicted until information arises that suggests otherwise.
How does one reconcile faith with the fact that what you initially confide in will often prove incorrect or incomplete? It is highly unlikely that your initial faith target will be correct, or that it will endure all future additional information you might learn. This in no way should deter you from exercising great faith and attempting to learn everything you can.
While “doubting nothing” is going to prove a mistake until you discover all pertinent information regarding what you seek and how to obtain it, having confidence through faith is the only way you’ll discover improved information beyond what you otherwise could not realize was imperfect or incomplete.
Consider shooting targets with a rifle. If your aim is poor, you still may be able to hit close targets with the gun’s default sights. Increased aiming skill will be required to hit a distant target with those sights. If you aim at distant enough targets, you will not be able to distinguish between aim that will hit the target and aim that will not: both sight pictures will be indistinguishable. With the aid of a scope, you can resolve between aims that will hit the far target and those that will not. So it is with faith.
It is always good to know everything you can, precisely because of the fact that greater knowledge will reveal errors and limitations in you that you would not otherwise realize. When you seek, “doubting nothing,” you will find that sometimes you are wrong. That is the point! It is the only way you will discover limits that you would never have noticed if you never bothered seeking in the first place, or if you did so only half-heartedly. The point is not to be correct at first, but to be correct eventually, and to be as correct as possible in the meantime. Those who refuse to be wrong now can never be right later.
We don’t tend to get into trouble for believing things we shouldn’t. We get into trouble when we refuse to change our beliefs when given good reason to. If we truly believe them for honest reasons, we will act according to them, and very quickly discover our mistake.