According to the Entourage dictionary, faith is the belief in, devotion to or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof.
John 15: 1-7 talks about 'The True Vine', which is our unity with Christ. How attaching ourselves with Him produces good fruit. Verse 5 says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from you can do nothing." In other words, with Jesus, we can do all things and without Him, we can do nothing. (ESV)
Like all things in life, we have choices. Do we want to be united with Christ or not? Do we want to be a fruit bearing branch or a dead one? Not praying, not reading the Bible, not letting God be in control pushes us away from Him and we suffer (like a dead branch). But if we obey Him and commit ourselves to Him and have faith, we will be renewed. My devotions say 'it's like sap flowing through a branch to bring new growth'. So if you use your imagination you can watch the leaves/flowers/fruit grow. And they are alive and healthy.
Through trials and hardships, we should depend on God because He is in charge and we should allow Him to work in us so to grow us and mature us to where He wants us (so we can produce great fruits). Our faith should ultimately get stronger during hard times as our faith in God will carry us through our problems and we will be able to stay calm and confident though out it all.
