What is Faith?

Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-16

Key Verse: Hebrews 11:1

There are many times as a Christian that people have told me not to lose faith or to keep the faith. To be quite honest, I did not know what that meant. I felt like the word faith was just being tossed around as a religious colloquialism. For some reason, it felt like people just weren’t listening to me and consequently used that saying as an escape. So, God placed it on my heart to explore this word more with you all in this series. Hopefully by the end that saying will not only make sense to me, but to you all as well.

Hebrews 11:1 has the clearest definition of faith that I could find in the bible. Put in simple terms it says that faith is the belief that God is working everything out behind the scenes even if what is in front of us looks bad. Now that sounds easy enough, but when I thought about moments when people told me to keep the faith I struggled with the application. How am I supposed to keep the faith when my tuition is due and all my scholarships have been applied, but I am still thousands of dollars short? How am I supposed to keep the faith when my grandmother passes away and she was the only one who could make me smile in my darkest hours? How am I supposed to keep the faith when someone else gets to reap the benefits for the work I put in? I honestly felt trapped in all of those situations and felt that God had left me alone to suffer. However, this word faith says I am supposed to trust that everything is going to be ok even when it doesn’t seem to be following a logical pattern (v.3). Because, if we could explain it then how would He get the credit?

Verses 4-12 of this chapter give us examples of people in the bible who walked by faith. If we look closely at these verses, we can see several components of what it means to keep the faith.

1. Abel showed us that faith is sacrificial. It means giving God your best even when other people do not (v.4).
2. Enoch showed us that faith is maintaining a close enough relationship with God to the point where trust is inevitable (v.5).
3. Noah showed us that faith is being obedient. It may not always be clear why God has you partaking in certain actions, but you must do them anyways (v.7).
4. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah showed us that faith is believing that God will keep His promises. The bible says he will never leave us nor forsake us in Deuteronomy 31:6, so we must trust that He will always follow through (v.8-11).

I mean this all sounds great, but when you are in the middle of the storm most of this mindset goes out the window. For that reason, God wants us to know that the biggest component of faith is remembering that the earth is not our forever home (v.16). God doesn’t want us to get caught up in earthly disappointment and frustration. He recognizes and validates our emotions, but He wants us to know that all of those feelings are temporary. We have to believe that when this life is all over that money, death, or even other people’s success cannot impact our salvation. He wants us to trust His plan for our lives.

Prayer: Lord today I want to say thank you. Thank you for the people who told me to keep the faith in dark moments. Thank you for always making a way for me when I felt trapped or lost. Thank you for helping me to make sacrifices, maintain a close relationship with you, be obedient, and believe that you will always keep your promises. Lord, because you have given me the ability to have faith, I know that when it is all over on this earth, I will be able to come to my true home and spend eternity with you and for that I am truly grateful. Please help me to keep the faith. I thank you in advance for everything you are about to do in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.