What is faith? Rob Lacey's "The Word on the Street" translation of the Bible states in Hebrews 11:1-3 "What's 'taking God at His word' mean? Let me fill you in. It's being dead sure of our prospects. It's being sold on something we've no evidence for, convinced when there's no proof. And it's what the old heroes had truck loads of." "The Message" translation puts Hebrews 11:3 this way "By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see."
Do I always take Him at His word? Am I completely convinced when there is no proof? Am I 100% sold when there is no evidence? Unfortunately, right now my answer would be 'no' at this stage in my life. Faith is something that I have always struggled with. I know God made all these promises, but I am more of a "seeing is believing" person -- I want to see physical proof or evidence that He is working on what He promised. Look at Hebrews 11, it talks about people that God made promises to and these people still had faith that God would follow through on His word even though the promises did not come to be until after the respective individual passed away...now THAT is what I call true faith!
There are so many examples of AWESOME faith in Hebrews 11
- Noah built an ark not knowing what would happen
- Abraham and Sarah had a baby in their old age
- Abraham offered his only son Isaac on the altar
- Moses' parents hid him to protect him from the King's law
- Moses later refused to be treated like royalty even though he was raised by the Pharoah's daughter
- Rahab welcomed the spies and was not killed with those who disobeyed
I like how the NIV translation closes out the chapter with Hebrews 11:39-40: "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."
My prayer is that I would have faith like these great men and women of God -- that I would take Him at His word and not so much worry about evidence for today but to look back on these lives as God at work keeping His promises -- and that would be the only proof that I should need to encourage my faith to grow.
In Christ,
Scott