Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3
I’ve really been thinking about faith the past couple of days. What is it? How do I get it? Where does it come from? Who has it? Who or what do I have faith in?
Since I have faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was raised from the dead I’ve considered other questions too. Where did this faith come from? How did I get it? What does it mean for my life? Is it real?
By no means am I questioning my faith, but I do find it odd that I’ve become removed from its origins. Shouldn’t I be able to describe the moment I had faith? How about why I have decided to believe the Bible? Aren’t these questions I should be able to answer?
As I’ve thought about faith the last couple of days, I haven’t found simple answers to these questions because they aren’t simple questions. But I have come to a better understanding of why I have faith and why perhaps it is easy for me to walk confidently into the unknown.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. As Christians, our hope is in Jesus Christ. It is not a flimsy hope or one of wishful thinking. It is as certain to happen as if it has already occurred. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus is who He says He is and He will achieve all that He said He would.
How do I know? The greatest evidence I have of this is the transformation of my heart. Not an external behavioral transformation, because that can be manipulated or faked. I’m talking about an internal transformation of my desires. I have seen consistent progress towards desiring the things that God desires and detesting the things that God detests. How do I know this faith is real? I know that a heart can not change from having one set of desires (selfish, hateful) to another set (loving, selfless) by human will or exertion. It has never been within man’s ability to do things with pure motives since the first bite of that fruit. Apart from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, this transformation will never occur.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. Why am I so convinced that God loves me enough to send His Son to die for my sins? As I read the Bible more and more, my eyes are opened to see God at work all around me. The conversation at lunch turns out to parallel the sermon at chapel. The long underway period becomes a chance to gain endurance in patience and good attitude and ends up as an answer to prayer. A verse that speaks to my heart in a morning devotional becomes an encouragement to a brother struggling to find joy. These aren’t coincidences. These are evidence of God’s hand in our lives! Is God working in your life? If you even hesitate to say yes, it isn’t because He is absent. It is because you are not seeing things clearly. Spend more time in the Word and you’ll start to see God working.
For by faith the people of old received their commendation. Abraham, Noah, Abel, and all of the Old Testament saints had faith and because of their faith, God considered them righteous. How did they believe God? By actively obeying and following God’s instructions! What kind of faith do we have? Do we act on our faith? Or is it dead faith like James calls faith without works? Only when we put our faith into action does it become real faith that saves.
We understand by faith that the universe was created by the Word of God. WHOA! God said “let there be light” and there was light. It is hard to imagine that everything that we can see and even the things that the most powerful telescopes cannot see were created by God’s word. That’s all it took.
I had a conversation today about this. A friend couldn’t believe that I was so “short-sighted” to not believe that everything in the universe was a result of good luck. It was total dumb luck that “goo” that contains life would land on a planet that would be suitable to our climate needs and our oxygen needs and our water needs and our food needs. Then over billions of years evolution took its course and eventually we ended up where we are now. Intelligent life on earth. Rational thinking human beings came out of a big bang.
What was there before the big bang? How could matter just always exist? Forgive me that I find it incredibly naive to think that I evolved from space matter that flew here on a comet. That the whole universe with gravity and orbits and stars and galaxies and the sun and moon just happened by pure chance. I can’t fathom ever thinking that. It just sounds silly to me.
Not only is it much more likely that there is a Creator, it is the only thing that makes sense. Anyone who denies that is just fooling themselves. Not that I’m judging, because pride is a scary thing and I’m still dealing with plenty of it. But, let’s get real. It takes much more faith to believe in evolution than it does in a Creator.
What is seen was not made out of things that are visible. If things were not created, how have they always existed? Isn’t that basically believing the same thing as a creationist? Oh, something has always existed. Why not just accept that it is an infinitely powerful God?
When I think about it, it is easy to accept so much on faith. God loves me. He created me to marvel at the work of His hands. He created me as one of His own treasured possessions. He gave me life. True life. Eternal life. Why do I have faith? Because I see the glory of God in all of creation. He has changed my life. He will make me like Him.
My Jesus is easy to believe in.
Hebrews 11:1-3
I’ve really been thinking about faith the past couple of days. What is it? How do I get it? Where does it come from? Who has it? Who or what do I have faith in?
Since I have faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was raised from the dead I’ve considered other questions too. Where did this faith come from? How did I get it? What does it mean for my life? Is it real?
By no means am I questioning my faith, but I do find it odd that I’ve become removed from its origins. Shouldn’t I be able to describe the moment I had faith? How about why I have decided to believe the Bible? Aren’t these questions I should be able to answer?
As I’ve thought about faith the last couple of days, I haven’t found simple answers to these questions because they aren’t simple questions. But I have come to a better understanding of why I have faith and why perhaps it is easy for me to walk confidently into the unknown.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. As Christians, our hope is in Jesus Christ. It is not a flimsy hope or one of wishful thinking. It is as certain to happen as if it has already occurred. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus is who He says He is and He will achieve all that He said He would.
How do I know? The greatest evidence I have of this is the transformation of my heart. Not an external behavioral transformation, because that can be manipulated or faked. I’m talking about an internal transformation of my desires. I have seen consistent progress towards desiring the things that God desires and detesting the things that God detests. How do I know this faith is real? I know that a heart can not change from having one set of desires (selfish, hateful) to another set (loving, selfless) by human will or exertion. It has never been within man’s ability to do things with pure motives since the first bite of that fruit. Apart from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, this transformation will never occur.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. Why am I so convinced that God loves me enough to send His Son to die for my sins? As I read the Bible more and more, my eyes are opened to see God at work all around me. The conversation at lunch turns out to parallel the sermon at chapel. The long underway period becomes a chance to gain endurance in patience and good attitude and ends up as an answer to prayer. A verse that speaks to my heart in a morning devotional becomes an encouragement to a brother struggling to find joy. These aren’t coincidences. These are evidence of God’s hand in our lives! Is God working in your life? If you even hesitate to say yes, it isn’t because He is absent. It is because you are not seeing things clearly. Spend more time in the Word and you’ll start to see God working.
For by faith the people of old received their commendation. Abraham, Noah, Abel, and all of the Old Testament saints had faith and because of their faith, God considered them righteous. How did they believe God? By actively obeying and following God’s instructions! What kind of faith do we have? Do we act on our faith? Or is it dead faith like James calls faith without works? Only when we put our faith into action does it become real faith that saves.
We understand by faith that the universe was created by the Word of God. WHOA! God said “let there be light” and there was light. It is hard to imagine that everything that we can see and even the things that the most powerful telescopes cannot see were created by God’s word. That’s all it took.
I had a conversation today about this. A friend couldn’t believe that I was so “short-sighted” to not believe that everything in the universe was a result of good luck. It was total dumb luck that “goo” that contains life would land on a planet that would be suitable to our climate needs and our oxygen needs and our water needs and our food needs. Then over billions of years evolution took its course and eventually we ended up where we are now. Intelligent life on earth. Rational thinking human beings came out of a big bang.
What was there before the big bang? How could matter just always exist? Forgive me that I find it incredibly naive to think that I evolved from space matter that flew here on a comet. That the whole universe with gravity and orbits and stars and galaxies and the sun and moon just happened by pure chance. I can’t fathom ever thinking that. It just sounds silly to me.
Not only is it much more likely that there is a Creator, it is the only thing that makes sense. Anyone who denies that is just fooling themselves. Not that I’m judging, because pride is a scary thing and I’m still dealing with plenty of it. But, let’s get real. It takes much more faith to believe in evolution than it does in a Creator.
What is seen was not made out of things that are visible. If things were not created, how have they always existed? Isn’t that basically believing the same thing as a creationist? Oh, something has always existed. Why not just accept that it is an infinitely powerful God?
When I think about it, it is easy to accept so much on faith. God loves me. He created me to marvel at the work of His hands. He created me as one of His own treasured possessions. He gave me life. True life. Eternal life. Why do I have faith? Because I see the glory of God in all of creation. He has changed my life. He will make me like Him.
My Jesus is easy to believe in.
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