Hebrews 11:1-2
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.“
Hebrews 11:1-2 NIV
God has not called us to a blind leap into the dark, but to bank our lives on the One who is dependable and faithful. This all encompassing verse explains both what faith in Jesus Christ is and what that faith does. The heart of faith develops its own eyes, which see spiritual things coming that can't yet be seen by the physical eye.
When the author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes, "faith is the substance," he uses a single Greek word hupostasis, meaning "to stay under, a foundation." So faith is the foundation on which all our hopes for the future are built.
Faith doesn't make imaginary things come true, but rather it enables God's people to live with certainty and confidence in the realities that are true, though not yet physically visible. Mature believers who have trusted God through years of great trials, sorrow, and pain will tell us that Jesus has become so real and precious to them, that they are absolutely confident of His promises.
When we choose to look with eyes of faith, we become more and more confident of the reality of God and what awaits us in eternity. As we are commanded to love others, we are compelled to share the truth we have found in Jesus with those around us. Love leaves us no other recourse than to care about others enough to share the truth of Jesus Christ's dying so that we might live.
Do you want a stronger faith, a better faith, a more alive faith, a more active faith? Guess what you have to do? You need to read, study and meditate on the Word. You need to absorb the Word. It needs to permeate your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your will, your life. Do this over and over again. Faith comes by hearing.
A living faith in God's Word and the confident hope in His promises are two graces that embrace each other in love at the foot of the Cross. This is not a Que sera sera, fingers-crossed and hope it happens type of faith. This is the faith that accepts without question that the Word of God is entirely dependable and is an indisputable fact. This is the faith that unquestioningly takes God at His Word, knowing that all He has promised to us in Christ is more secure than the rising of the morning sun and more certain than the daily passage of time. It is the firm persuasion, unshakable confidence, and indisputable expectation, that all God has said, in and through His Word, is established forever and does not take refuge in a maybe or a perhaps.
May the hope we have in Christ and the faith we have in God be built on the truth, of His Word and grounded on a sure conviction!!!
Father, thank you for this day and the measure of faith You have given us. Lord, pour out Your abundant blessings from the storehouses of heaven upon my friend and family today. Lord, we thank You for the gift of faith. We thank You for raising us to spiritual life and giving us the ability to receive what You have said through Your Word. Lord, we thank You that faith is not based on nonsense, but on facts, history, eye-witnesses, and good evidence. Lord, help my friend to present Your Gospel and all things in Your Word with reasons to all those who ask today.
Father, we love You. Amen !
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