I Don't Want to Talk About You Like You're Not in the Room

This is my attempt to keep up better with writing down what I've learned (or failed to learn) at this point in my life. I figured that blogspot is an easier way to connect, and rather than transfer everything from my other blog, I'll just link it here.

I've been thinking a lot lately about faith. It helped that it was the topic of bible study this week, but I've found myself wondering about my own faith in the recent past and how the way that I conduct my life does or does not exemplify it. Faith, in my possibly shallow understanding of it, is not only manifested by the actions and conduct that we show in our own lives (ie. James 2) but also in the action that our faith spurs others toward. I get this understand from the story of the blind man receiving his sight in Luke 18.

When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord, I want to see," he replied.
Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you."

...When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

So the substance of our faith has the ability to draw us closer to God as we trust in his sovereignty and goodness and also has the possibility to prompt others to do the same. But it leads me to wonder, what, if anything, God gains from our faith. Hebrews 11:6 states that it's impossible to please God without faith, but what exactly pleases him about our growth? His end of the deal is constant regardless of our trust or distrust because He is unchanging. We, on the other hand, do change, so it makes me wonder if our fluctuations in the depth of our faith solely involve us.