Each summer my family makes a trek to Tampa, FL to see my parents. For my kids the main attraction at Nonnie and Grandaddy's house is the swimming pool! I remember when they were young and learning to swim they'd love to jump into the pool and have me catch them. And they'd always want to repeat this over and over again!
In an effort to help them learn to swim a bit on their own I would sometimes move just a little further out into the pool. At first it was not a problem as they didn't even recognize I was further away. Eventually though they'd start to think more about the jump and ask me to move closer in. They did this because they inherently knew that their own ability to jump was not up to the distance I was out in the water. They sensed uncertainty. This is when I'd start encouraging them to just jump! They would eventually jump but they wanted assurance before they did that I would be there for them.
This is the beginning of what faith is. Faith is the ability to trust in God in the face of uncertainty. It does not rest on facts or our own ability but rather on God who is all-powerful and wants to help us when we cannot help ourselves.
The Bible expands on this with an incredible definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (NIV)
Biblical faith pertains to two things: the future and the invisible.
It also always produces some kind of action. The remainder of Hebrews 11, sometimes referred to as the "Hall of Fame of Faith", details how several individuals were spurred to act based on their faith.
Let's look at each of these topics in more detail.
In an effort to help them learn to swim a bit on their own I would sometimes move just a little further out into the pool. At first it was not a problem as they didn't even recognize I was further away. Eventually though they'd start to think more about the jump and ask me to move closer in. They did this because they inherently knew that their own ability to jump was not up to the distance I was out in the water. They sensed uncertainty. This is when I'd start encouraging them to just jump! They would eventually jump but they wanted assurance before they did that I would be there for them.
This is the beginning of what faith is. Faith is the ability to trust in God in the face of uncertainty. It does not rest on facts or our own ability but rather on God who is all-powerful and wants to help us when we cannot help ourselves.
The Bible expands on this with an incredible definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (NIV)
Biblical faith pertains to two things: the future and the invisible.
It also always produces some kind of action. The remainder of Hebrews 11, sometimes referred to as the "Hall of Fame of Faith", details how several individuals were spurred to act based on their faith.
Let's look at each of these topics in more detail.
Seeing the Future
The first part of this defining verse deals with things you hope for in the future. We don't hope for things that have already happened. Hope by definition pertains to the future.
Faith gives us confidence that what we hope for in the future will actually happen. We don't know the outcome of the future based on facts or physical evidence. We believe and have confidence in this future hope based on faith.
What is something that you hope for in the future?
For the christian, one of our greatest hopes is spending an eternity with God after our life on earth is over. This is a future that we hope for and faith is what gives us assurance that it will happen.
Unless you are advanced in age this future hope can feel far off. What is something you hope for in the future that you want to see happen next week or next month or next year?
Of course everything you hope for in the future may never become a reality. We deal with disappointment all of the time when we hope for some future outcome that does not happen.
This leads us to another key point: faith gives us confidence in the future that God will bring about our hoped for result. This is certainly true of our salvation. God promises this to believers many times in His word and notably just a few verses after Hebrews 11:1. Verse six states that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one that comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who seek Him."
God will provide this future reward to us based on our belief and our desire to have a close relationship with Him.
So faith is a confidence in the things we are hoping for God to do for us in the future. And it can be anything as long as it hasn't happened yet and we are trusting in God for it.
Before moving forward I'd like to point out that God is not a magical vending machine that just gives out every want or wish that we may have. Faith is not about asking God for a brand new Porsche and then expecting it to be in your driveway tomorrow.
God is primarily concerned about giving us things that will actually help us in our relationship with Him and service to Him. This can certainly come in the form of a physical thing but the purpose matters.
Not ironically, the same is true of Jesus' miracles. His miracles were primarily done so that people would believe in God and to serve people in need.
So the first pillar of faith from Hebrews 11:1 gives us confidence in a future provided by God. It gives us conviction that we will receive salvation, that we can lead others to salvation, that God will act on our behalf when we ask Him for things that will glorify Him like healing or anything that can help support our service to Him and others.
Seeing the Invisible
The second part of this foundational verse on faith deals with things that are invisible. Things that we cannot see and yet we understand that they exist.
When I was in college I visited some friends in Bowling Green, KY and we decided to go "caving" which is basically hiking into a cave that is usually at the mouth of a river or stream. As we made our way over rocks and deeper into the cave it got dark... like really dark.
We had flashlights that allowed us to navigate through some tricky passages and eventually into a large open area with large rocks stacked on top of each other. We sat there for a while with the flashlights turned off and it was completely dark; so completely dark that I could not even see my hand in front of my face.
I thought later about how scary it would have been if all of our flashlights had stopped working while we were deep in the cave. We could have followed the water to the mouth of the cave, but it would have been difficult to feel our way through some of the narrow passages we had come through.
Without light our eyes simply don't work. They are made to detect light, even in very small amounts so that we can generally still see things in the dark. But in complete darkness we can't see a single thing.
Just like light allows our eyes to see, faith is the light that allows us to see spiritual things; but without faith we are effectively in a cave of complete darkness and unable to see or even be aware of what is happening in the spiritual world.
Paul mentions this principle in II Corinthians 5:7 where he writes, "We walk by faith and not by sight." As a follower of Christ we don't just look at the things we see physically, with the eyes of faith we are able to walk through uncertainty with confidence that God will guide us.
Faith allows us to see as we travel on our spiritual journey but without it we trip and fall as we make our way through life.
So faith is connected to vision but whereas our eyes can observe the physical world, faith allows us to see the spiritual world. A world that includes God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and angels and other spiritual beings like Satan and fallen angels who serve him (also known as demons or evil spirits).
This vision of things that are physically invisible is very important. It is the basis for us to understand and engage in spiritual warfare and to see how God is working in the world.
And we can see this spiritual world only with the glasses of faith.
Faith Always Results in Action
It is tempting to always equate belief with faith and it is true that belief is a core part of faith. The primary difference though is that faith always takes belief a step further into action.
The dictionary defines belief as: "an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists." This is a core component of what faith is. We accept that the statement "God exists and is the creator of the world" is true despite not having seen Him or creation ourselves. We believe this is true. And this is inextricably connected to faith as we've already noted in Hebrews 11:6.
But even demons believe in God. James notes this as an argument for why faith is something greater than mere belief (James 2:19). Faith that is alive is always followed by action or works.
Continuing in Hebrews 11 we can observe a pattern as the writer enumerates how several people acted by faith.
Here is the pattern: By faith [person of faith] [does this thing based on their faith]. Let's looks at a few of these:
By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice to God. (Hebrews 11:4)
By faith Noah built an ark. (Hebrews 11:7)
By faith Abraham packed up and left his home without knowing his destination. (Hebrews 11:8)
By faith Abraham offered his son Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)
By faith Moses refused to be called pharaoh's son. (Hebrews 11:24)
By faith Rahab welcomed the spies. (Hebrews 11:31)
If you look at each of these examples in more detail you'll notice something interesting. Every time these people acted in faith it didn't make any sense from a natural perspective.
Take Abraham for example. Who packs up everything they own and leaves on a trip without knowing their destination?
Or Noah - who builds a massive boat in the middle of dry land without an ocean or river in sight?
Or Moses - who in their right mind would refuse all of the luxury of being a part of the royal family in Egypt to join a bunch of slaves?
And we didn't even talk about what a completely stupid military strategy (from an earthly viewpoint) it was to walk around a city for seven days as the Israelites did when conquering Jericho.
None of these examples make any sense at all... unless we are looking at them with the eyes of faith.
And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Hebrews 11:33,34 lists several more examples of what others accomplished based on their faith:
"who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."
It is incredible when you think about it. Faith was the catalyst for so many amazing things in the pages of scripture as people acted and God worked through their actions.
The dictionary defines belief as: "an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists." This is a core component of what faith is. We accept that the statement "God exists and is the creator of the world" is true despite not having seen Him or creation ourselves. We believe this is true. And this is inextricably connected to faith as we've already noted in Hebrews 11:6.
But even demons believe in God. James notes this as an argument for why faith is something greater than mere belief (James 2:19). Faith that is alive is always followed by action or works.
Continuing in Hebrews 11 we can observe a pattern as the writer enumerates how several people acted by faith.
Here is the pattern: By faith [person of faith] [does this thing based on their faith]. Let's looks at a few of these:
By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice to God. (Hebrews 11:4)
By faith Noah built an ark. (Hebrews 11:7)
By faith Abraham packed up and left his home without knowing his destination. (Hebrews 11:8)
By faith Abraham offered his son Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)
By faith Moses refused to be called pharaoh's son. (Hebrews 11:24)
By faith Rahab welcomed the spies. (Hebrews 11:31)
If you look at each of these examples in more detail you'll notice something interesting. Every time these people acted in faith it didn't make any sense from a natural perspective.
Take Abraham for example. Who packs up everything they own and leaves on a trip without knowing their destination?
Or Noah - who builds a massive boat in the middle of dry land without an ocean or river in sight?
Or Moses - who in their right mind would refuse all of the luxury of being a part of the royal family in Egypt to join a bunch of slaves?
And we didn't even talk about what a completely stupid military strategy (from an earthly viewpoint) it was to walk around a city for seven days as the Israelites did when conquering Jericho.
None of these examples make any sense at all... unless we are looking at them with the eyes of faith.
And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Hebrews 11:33,34 lists several more examples of what others accomplished based on their faith:
"who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."
It is incredible when you think about it. Faith was the catalyst for so many amazing things in the pages of scripture as people acted and God worked through their actions.
Summary and Other Questions
What is faith? It is the ability to have confidence in the future we hope for and to see the invisible spiritual world; and it always results in action. We use the evidence that is the foundation of our faith to make decisions and take action even when the outcome or final results is uncertain.
Some other important questions that we'll investigate in the future:
Where does faith come from? How do we get it?
What changes in our life when we have faith? Is anything different?
What does GREAT FAITH look like? And how does the size and growth of our faith affect our spiritual vision?
Stay tuned!