Is faith a gift some people receive and some don't? or is it something everyone can have?

My brother, I am also passing through some similar questions, and i do share your pain.

I am going to share a little of what i have found in this journey, i hope it helps you.

First of all you must feel good about this: You are starting a very exciting journey towards a deep encounter with God.

The sense of security is always lost as a result of something that came to create conflict with our "security base" (Only you know what that was), as you can understand we all have an image of who God is inside our minds, however some of us really become attached in the bad or good sense to that image, but that is always an imperfect one: This last statement is the solution to really get out of the chaos of confusion and start growing.

When our image of God becomes shattered, it is because we are being called to grow, our natural tendency is to find that security again, this is the delicate part, it can be a cause or fall and deviation or a cause of growth and happiness. The Perfect Image of God is Jesus Christ, if you want to know Who God Is, and What kind of God He is look at Jesus Christ. the God of the Universe is not any other but the Father of Our Lord Jesus. He came to show us the Truth, so that we would not be looking in other ways and become lost.

Man by itself does not have the power to Know God, That is why Revelation occurred, that means God reached man, while before we all tried to grasp Him by our own strength and knowledge with bad and not too acceptable results.

The Gift of Faith, is a grace yes, God wants to give it to everyone, He would NEVER deny it, However Faith must be accepted Freely, that means that God is NOT going to send Faith in a way that one programs a robot to accept something. and that Gift of Faith also comes in many different ways, it might come as a result of personal journey and manifest itself as a deep conviction about something we cannot yet see, but that we do feel deep inside us.

I am pretty sure that you feel that too, otherwise you wouldn't be here, in that sense you can be convinced that you do have that precious Gift, someone who didn't would be here asking this in the first place. The Purpose of Life is to find your personal Gifts given by God, to give yourself to everyone and become happy after physical death in the prescence of Your Father.

I also feel you are deeply depressed, do not be afraid to use what God has given us through medicine and science, a counselor can help you to unwire the Human Part of your depression, and a good Priest can help you with the Spiritual Part which is deeply imbued in all the others.

And yes your mind affects your heart, however, Grace acts despite all of this, You might believe firmly you are the worst sinner ever while not having any sin after being forgiven, and still have the shine of the Holy Spirit burning inside you.

You can belive you are not loved while everyone around might love you a lot, You might believe God is not interested in You while He has been looking for you more than you have been looking for Him all this time.

Faith is NOT logical it is Onthological, What is logical does not actually become instantly Onthological.

I recommend you to look for: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

Faith, Truth and Tolerance by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean Pierre de Caussade

Uniformity with God's will by St. Alphonsus de Ligouri

Brother i wish you the best, and as i am passing through this Dark Night of the Soul as well, i do not feel alone in this path, i know you and many others are passing through this as well, but i have Faith that i will come out of this if i go firm with God. even though i might still have many doubts and life sometimes becomes so confusing, God has patience with me, as a Father has patience when his son starts to take the first steps willing to walk. We, you and me are learning how to walk in the spirit

God Bless you!

Really? Look at some of the movies that are out like Harry Potter. People have more faith in that than God talks about in the Bible. The Bible mentions faith that is no more than a mustard seed. This question is more of a cop out than anything else. The truth is that man definately has the propensity for faith and to have it. People practice scientology and even spiritism, including the junk that is in the Matrix. Why don't you word the question more accurately in order to tell the truth.

Why do people use their gift of faith for everything except for Jesus of Nazareth and the Bible?

You also mentioned this being a game. Alot of people apparently think this is a game. Ever heard of the commandment, "thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain?

Apparently, not only do people do just that, they have made a fashion out of doing so. Look at that yahoo entertainment page: OMG.

OMG?

You sound sooooo confused, as if you were immoral and trying desperately to counter the consequences. For example, nothing is more wrong than to say the mind rules the heart !!!

The Will is absolutely necessary to belief, even to the entertaining of belief, even to the praying for faith. And most of civilization has always agreed on this. Sounds like you know beyond doubt that you are guilty and fear the consequences. ( I could be wrong )

"“Man can be compelled to do a good many things. There are a good many other things he can do in a halfhearted fashion, as it were, against his will. But belief can never be halfhearted. One can believe only if one wishes to. Perhap the credibility of a given person will be revealed to me so persuasively that I cannot help but think: It is wrong not to believe him; I “must” believe him. But this last step can be taken only in complete freedom, and that means that it can also not be taken. There may be plenty of compelling arguments for a man’s cedibility; but no argument can force us to believe him.

The unanimity of statements on this point is astonishing; and the agreement ranges all the way from Augustine and Thomas to Kierkegaard, Newman and Andre Gide. Augustine’s phrase from the Commentary on John is famous; “Nemo credit nisi volens”: No one believes except of his own free will. Kierkegaard says that one man can do much for another, “but give him belief, he cannot”. Newman is forever stressing, in one guise or another, the one idea that belief is something other than the result of a logical process; it is precisely not “a conclusion from premises”. “For directly you have a conviction that you ought to believe, reason has done its part, and what is wanted for faith is, not proof, but will.” And Andre Gide? In the last jottings he published after his Journals we may read these sentences: “There is more light in Christ’s words than in any other human word. This is not enough, it seems, to be a Christian: in addition, one must believe. Well, I do not believe.” Taken all together, these statements obviously mean the following: It is one thing to regard what someone else has said as interesting, clever, important, magnificent, the product of genius or absolutely “true”. We may feel compelled to to think and say any and all these things in utter sincerity. But it is quite a different matter to accept precisely the same statements in the way of belief. In order for this other matter, belief, to come about, a further step is necessary. A free assent of will must be performed. Belief rests upon volition” (Josef Pieper")

its normal i used to have doubts but never stop anyone im arabian in an arabian country

i didnt have a death wish so i kept it all to myself

but you see we create things so in a way there must be a god that created life things dont just exist

i keep telling my self there are days were i faith others im not sure

but to be honest faith made me feel better made me feel safe just like you did

i used to complain about everything bad happens but now i know that god wanted me to learn from a bad experience for example my class mates were really horrible people i hated school

but because of them im a better person you might not know whats the reason of something bad happens but if you did you will appreciate it

just saying that doubt is a normal thing i think of it alot especially if someone dies i wonder whats happening to them but i still do have faith

faith and religion are 2 different things

dont believe what your told, believe what you want to believe and think its right

God still loves you even if you feel that you have fallen away. Is there anything I could say that could convince you that God still loves you? Sin is what generally causes us to fall away from God. We fall into sin and then our minds become clouded. And sin is a condition of the heart. Your remedy is found in repentance, forgiveness, and healing only through Jesus Christ. God's love is what leads us back into repentance. But once we fall into sin we start believing that God doesn't love us anymore but that is not true. It is a lie from Satan who is the father of lies. God pursues us like in the parable of the lost sheep, he searches for us, to bring us back to him, not willing that any should perish.

We all can be plagued with doubts from time to time but ultimately we have to make a decision. Choose life or death. In Christ is life and the only way to the Father. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Are you seed that falls on rocky ground, or in thorns, or on the path? Or are you seed that bears fruit? If you look to the world for answers you will only find more questions but if you look to Jesus you will find rest for your soul.

Do not lose your faith which is more precious than gold. Faith is a gift and comes from hearing God speak to us. Hear God speaking to you now. He loves you and died for you. No greater love has anyone then he that laid down his life for us while we were his enemies so that we would become his friends.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. " (1Peter 3-9)

as per one of the answers, its hard to seek out something that isn't real to you though. looking to god to answer your problem isnt that easy if your problem is you dont know if god is real.

we all have faith in something, take your time to work out what you believe, I am the same, if there is a god, then he will see the good hearts in people, and not discriminate according to what creed or religion someone is. if there isnt, well look to your own morals, sometimes its rewarding to know you have your own standards or made decisions for you.

What you are going through is normal. I think we all ask these questions at some point in our life. The key is knowledge. If you find that your faith is shaken, then you must seek out God. Sometimes He makes us do the work, so that we can gain the ultimate reward. Heaven, Jannah, Paradise...it's all the same end goal. Don't expect that the answer will just fall in your lap.

I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed. Hadith Qudsi 15

for sure

if God doesn't exist, there is no meaning to life

God has given everyone a measure of faith and faith comes by the hearing of the word

I'm going to quote one of my favourite TV shows to you.

"There is no greater purpose, no bigger picture. If nothing we do matters, then ALL that matters is what we do."