What does it mean to be faithful?

What  does it mean to be faithful? 

 

In the Creed we do not say, "I believe that there is a God." We say, "I believe in one God." Between belief "that" and belief "in," there is a crucial distinction. It is possible for me to believe that someone or something exists, and yet for this belief to have no practical effect on my life. I can open a telephone directory and scan the names recorded on its pages; and, as I read, I am prepared to believe that some (or even most) of these people exist. But I know none of them personally and so my belief that they exist makes no particular difference to me. When, on the other hand, I say to a much beloved friend, "I believe in you," I am doing far more than expressing a belief that this person exists. "I believe in you" means: I turn to you, I rely upon you, I put my full trust in you and I hope in you. 

Faith is not merely the supposition that something might be true, but the assurance that Someone is there. 

Faith, then, is a personal relationship with God; a relationship as yet incomplete and faltering, yet none the less real. Faith is to know God not as an abstract principle, but as a Person. To know a person is far more than to know certain facts about that person; there can be no true awareness of other persons without mutual love. 

Here, then, are the two least misleading ways of speaking about the God who surpasses our understanding: He is personal and He is love. And these are basically two ways of saying the same thing. Our way of entry into the mystery of God is through personal love. Our God is beyond all we can think or express, yet closer to us than our own heart.

 - Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

From his book, The Orthodox Way