What Is Faith?

I don't think I understand faith. At least, I'm not sure how to define it. I've heard it said that "Belief is thinking that He can, but Faith is knowing that He will," but that can't be true because, sometimes, He doesn't. God does what's best for us, regardless of what we ask Him to do, no matter how much faith we have.

However, when we have faith, that doesn't mean that we have faith that God will answer our prayers on the way we want Him to; we have faith in God, period. I've also heard it said, from a far more reliable source (Elder Neil A. Maxwell), that "Faith in God includes faith in His timing." I might add that faith also includes faith in His wisdom, even His wisdom in saying "no" when we ask Him for things that aren't good for us. Having faith certainly doesn't mean that we can always get God to do what we want.

Then, what does it mean? What, exactly, is faith? Alma 32:21 says that faith is "hope for things which are not seen, which are true." So, basically, faith is hope. So, what is hope? True to the Faith says that "When we have hope, we trust God’s promises." So, hope is trust. What is trust? The Guide to the Scriptures says that to trust is "To rely upon or place confidence in someone or something." So, by extension, having faith in God means relying on Him and having confidence in Him. We can certainly rely on Him to keep His promises and covenants, but what about that other part? What does it mean to having confidence in God? Is that just referring to our belief in His ability, i.e. knowing that He can do anything He has promised to do?

I could follow the chain of definitions forever, but that won't get me much closer to understanding what faith is in a religious context. I would guess that it mostly means trusting God. God has made some bold claims and promises. Believing that those claims and promises are true can take a lot of faith. So, I suppose faith in God means trusting that God isn't lying to us when He tells us things, particularly about the stuff that's going to happen. If faith means trusting in God's promises and believing His claims, I suppose that's a good enough working definition. Still, I think this question is worth more pondering. For it being a central tenet of our doctrine and the first principle of the Gospel, you'd think I'd have a better understanding of the true nature of Faith.