Hebrews 11:1 ESV – Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Now this. This is what Christian faith is defined as. Salvation is the seed so to speak and faith is the belief system then walked out in confidence and conviction that God will do as He promises.
Let’s get technical here. “Now faith is the assurance…..” What does assurance mean in Greek you ask? Confidence. So faith is confident in the things hoped for. Faith is convinced of things not seen.
Faith is a strong belief, not a well-lets-hope-for-the-best mindset.
I love how ESV commentary says it, “Thus biblical faith is not blind trust in the face of contrary evidence, not an unknowable ‘leap in the dark’; rather, biblical faith is a confident trust in the eternal God who is all-powerful, intensely wise, eternally trustworthy – the God who has revealed Himself in His word and in the person of Jesus Christ, whose promises have proven true from generation to generation, and who will ‘never leave or forsake’ His own (Heb. 13:5).”
We have all kinds of proof – not only from the Bible and other historical documents that back it up – we have it in our own lives if we walk out our faith in light of our relationship with God.
Clearly we haven’t seen much, even though we have seen plenty. The whole after-life of heaven with our God is having faith in the unseen. Sometimes life hits hard and we can’t make sense of our tragedies. In those, I see it as I just haven’t gotten to see it YET. But I will. I know I will because my God is who He says He is and He comes through. He’s faithful.
Skipping back to Romans 8:24-25 ESV – “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Random side note here – for those people who don’t believe in anything – they actually hold out faith in nothing instead of in something or someone. They still have faith to believe what they can’t see. We all believe in something.
To write on the totality of faith would take a few more degrees than I have and revelations from God alone to give it it’s due. I hope this encourages you to keep on hoping for things you don’t see yet and praise God for the faithfulness on the times He took your hope and turned it into tangible love on this side of heaven. And if you didn’t get what you hoped for on this side of heaven, hold on to your hope of how it will be revealed to you when you get there.
