American culture has a very bad use of words that either are not used in the right context or are not understood at all. I believe the word “Faith” is one of them.
The word faith is a word of 100% or o%. Either you have it or you don’t! Think on this statement. Faith is a spiritual word. It is not a humanistic word.
We as christians in a reality of between worlds I believe. We are caught in the dimension of living in the real world and the wanna be Christ world,but we are using terminolby of the Christly world in the human world that doesn’t apply.
Having faith in Christ is a Spiritual state in that we believe in something that we cannot see, but in Christ that we cannot physically see but in our deepest part of our soul know that He is the Christ that died on that cross!.
Our lives should be based in this Spiritual world, not the humanistic world. Our Characteristics of living in this spiritual world will instinctively just ooze out of our shell or body to be a actually example of Christ.
I believe that we as christians have been working from the wrong angle of perspective on our journey of life. If would live as Christ’s being not as His actually life on earth, we would change the world. Remember, we are still walking around in this shell of a human that is fallible, Christ was also in this shell on earth, but He was without sin! This is a example of why we should not try to walk in Jesus’ way. Jesus was only here on earth to be an example of consummated being that had gone thru all the process of God’s eternal purpose.
The ultimate statement of Faith is our belief in Jesus Christ! Our understanding of Christ’s walk on earth of 33 and half years is important but His Nature is the true inspiration of his Life while on the earth. His nature was transported with Him when He came down from Heaven.
My journey with Him has been unbelievable with Him, I am just at the bottom of the mountain with Him in his Spirit but I am anxiously waiting to travel to top of the mountain to be with Him 100%.
Please pray for me in this journey of mine, God is working some miracles in my life, but Satan is trying to steal His thunder. Let me continue the faith in Jesus Christ and not succumb to any stumbling blocks. God is awesome,wonderful,amazing and faithful!
The Eternal Purpose 
I think that you may enjoy Soren Kierkegaard, not necessarily reading his works as they may be pretty dry, but looking through some of his ideas/philosophies.
He was considered a fanatic in his time by the Church for going over some of the paradoxes of Christianity and asserted that belief in God must always and necessarily be a “leap of faith”.
He had 3 stages of personal development that were crucial to his theory, they were..
1. Aesthetic – The problem with this stage is it is a life devoted to pleasure and enjoyment, and as such does not give people a sense of permanence. You will eventually become dissatisfied with your own impermanence and insignificance and it will fill you with despair. You can either choose to continue living in despair or you can go on to the next stage.
2. Ethical – You start to lead a more ethical, responsible existence. When you start to lead a more responsible existence, you start to introduce an idea of permanence into your life. This sense of permanence is only partial and leads to despair.
3. Religious – You can only reach the third stage through a leap of faith because there are not any rational reasons for making this move. You have to make it without any philosophical or conventional religious excuses. This is because what is most important is the truth that only you can know. Making this leap of faith is the way out of despair and it gives you a sense of the permanent significance of your life.