Faith

The essential comprehension necessary to live in the 359° of beauty.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Day 262: The Core Definition of Faith

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Faith is likely a word that you may struggle to define beyond the simple phrase, it’s what you believe in. However, it is so much more than that. It is easy to have faith when you have done something before. We have faith all the time without realizing it. We are guided by faith in mankind, divine intervention, the routine rising of the sun, the hand of God, miraculous deliverance, or just an act of God. Some people believe in karmic alignment or serendipitous timing to guide them about their daily living. Faith defined in this scripture is so much more than these things alone, today’s scripture is what many consider one of the bedrock definitions in all of scripture about faith.

Let’s look at this verse in a deeper context. Hebrews 11:1-3 NASB states: “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. For by it the people of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” This is a more comprehensive definition of faith for us to wrap our minds around. Faith is believing that future promises are present realities. It is believing in the things before they are proven to be real. While we did not see the creation of the world, we know it was created for our very nature of existence serves as evidence of its reality.

In essence, the definition of faith is believing in the invisibly visible God that has promised us so much more than we can imagine. It is laying ahold of a simple truth found in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” When we can fully grasp this in our hearts and minds, we can have the full assurance of our faith in Jesus Christ. We can walk straightforward to death’s doorstep knowing that it is a gateway into eternity with Jesus Christ. Fear has no hold on us. We approach with the confidence of Christ, because we choose to believe that His claims are real and even though they may seem invisible and future based promises, we know that we have them now because of the grace afforded to us through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.

Dear Faithful Father,

Thank You for an opportunity to begin learning about how faith in You brings about more than we could possibly imagine or ask You for in our lives. We know You are more than a cosmic slot machine. We know that You are Lord of lords and King of kings, the divine Creator of all things. We know that You are the invisibly visible God at work in our lives through the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, all aspects of who You are Father. We know we are nothing without You and that we desire to honor You today. Help us stand firm in faith knowing that the future promises are here now and that we are made complete in You. Thank You for Jesus, amen.

Day 263: Sight is not faith

2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV

For we live by faith, not by sight.

I distinctly remember going camping when I was a kid. We would tear out on a Friday evening to go to our favorite camping spot in the “mountains” of the plateau region of east Tennessee. There is one thing more than anything else I remember, it was a small discussion about faith that my father and I had while driving one night to our camping spot.

On the drive to our camping spot, there was this one turn that we had learned through the multiple drives there that had what we affectionally called the “tree in the road.” We would often look for this landmark as an indicator we were getting close to being there, because this was the time before GPS guidance. When driving into our camping spot it would almost always be dark when we drove this stretch of road and at the top of this hill in the middle of the road, there looked like a tree standing. When it is dark, all you would see is the giant trunk of the tree. It was perceived as the road ended in the tree, but right as you topped the hill there was a sharp right-turn away from the tree. One evening this sparked a conversation about faith that I pray I’ll never forget.

My father made the claim that everyone in life operates on some kind of faith, believing in what we cannot see. He used these deep Tennessee backroads as an illustration. The Holy Spirit was using this to teach my heart about the verse above. As humans, we live by faith, not by sight. If the opposite were true, the tree in the road spot would serve as evidence that sight is necessary before proceeding. You see, no one stops to see if the road continues forward at that tree. This is also true of almost every blind hill you drive over, we all inherently trust that the road is there. We cannot necessarily see the road, but we trust that it is there. We trust that our fellow man has not led us to our demise on the other side of the hill. Essentially, we have faith that the road continues onward even though we cannot see it. This is what it means to walk by faith, not by sight.

We must know that God has the path set before us and knows every detail. He simply desires us to walk through it with Him guiding us, instead of us thinking we have it on our own. The illustration does not stop with just the tree in the road. Every day you get in a car, on a bus, in a plane, or go somewhere down the road, you are practicing living by faith, not by sight. You see, we must believe that all the other people driving the opposite direction have the same faith we have in them as they have in us… to remain on the right side of the road. Chances are, you have passed millions of cars and never considered that it was a simple act of faith, believing in the system that was put in place for all of us to follow. We are to walk with the awareness that we may not know what is next, but that we will walk with the belief that God is sovereign and trust in His will for our lives. We must walk by faith, not by our sight… and please, keep your eyes open on the road!

Dear Creator of Life,

Thank You that You have destined us to walk the path forward much like the roads we take every day. Thank You for the opportunities to trust in Your will for our life, much like we trust the road builders on our everyday drives. May we honor Jesus in our pursuit to honor Your calling on our lives as we navigate by faith and not by our merely limited human sight. Lord, we know You have plans for us, that go so far beyond our comprehension. May we walk slowly enough to discern Your small whisper guiding us to the left or right as Your word commands us. May we rejoice in affliction, pray for those who would become hindrances, and bless those that may curse us, causing strife and angst in our lives. We know we love You Jesus. We thank You for this life and the promises that we can lay ahold and know through Your grace. In Jesus Christ’s authority and power, we seek to humbly serve You today, amen.

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