By Faith

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

In the remainder of this month’s meditations we will reflect on the examples of faith recorded in Hebrews 11. The faith described in Hebrews 11 is resurrection faith, true faith in all of God’s promises. A faith that cannot take you beyond the grave is in the end a dead faith.

Faith is something everyone has. Believing is something we all do. As much as we were all made to breathe, think, feel, taste, and so on, we were all made to believe.

As long as a person is consciously alive, the faculty of faith is always turned on. We cannot get the “I think,” “I suppose,” “I believe” language out of our vocabulary.

We might think of faith as a sixth sense. Faith is the faculty by which we take hold of realities that our other senses can’t grasp or identify.

Faith is yet another path to knowledge.

For human beings, the most basic knowledge of all is to know God. (See Proverbs 1:7.) Faith is the avenue, the means, the hands by which we come to know God, to realize that God has made us and loves us.

Next to the fact that God exists, the first thing true faith tells us about God is that it is he who made the whole universe.

Faith in God is so practical. It puts ground under our feet and eternity into our future.

Thank you, God, that we may believe you exist and that the whole universe was made by you. Help us never to let go of this conviction, never to let go of you. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.