The Bible says that ‘Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1). What does
this mean? I heard a pastor preach once and he said something to the effect
that faith is like a promissory note. This note states that you own this item
it’s only a matter of time before you are in physical possession of the item.
It’s very easy to talk about faith and encouraging others to have faith,
however living faith is a lot harder. The Bible says ‘The just shall live by
faith’ (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38).
So what am I meant to do to live by faith?
Hebrews 11, also known as the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’, lists all these great men
and women who lived by faith. Now I’ve been raised in the church reading the
Bible my whole life so I’ve heard and read the life stories of these faithful
people repeatedly and all of them were by no means perfect. Moses made excuses
to try and escape God’s mission for his life. Abraham, ‘the father of the
faithful’ and his wife Sarah didn’t believe God could bring them a child
through his aged wife.
The book of James informs us that "faith
without works is dead" (James 2:17, 20, 26). Is that what made the difference
in the lives of these people? They questioned the possibility of God’s promises
being fulfilled but despite their doubting, they pressed on and acted on the
belief that what God said, is so. Moses packed up and went back to Egypt to get
his people. Abraham knew Sarah and she bore a son. This chapter lists so many
other examples of people acting on a promise.
So the question is what promise has God
made to you? One that he has made to all of us is that He ‘will come again, and
receive you unto’ himself (John 14:1-4). Therefore having faith that we will
live in the presence of God means that we should live now as if we are already
in the physical presence of God. This
brings us back to God’s commands. They are few and simple, but faithlessness
has made them extremely difficult to follow. God asks us to enter into a
relationship with Him. Get to know Him, and obey His commandments. Living with this
faith will make our transition from this life into the next seamless.
So what is faith? It is a guarantee from
the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God that His word is complete whether
we see its fulfillment or not.
