What Does Faith Mean to You?

The Bible has much more to say about faith and how important it is. In fact, it is so important that, without faith, we have no place with God, and it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). According to the Bible, faith is belief in the one, true God without actually seeing Him.

I started thinking about faith and what it means to me.  One of the basic questions I asked myself is “How do you have faith in something you can’t see, touch or feel? God asks a lot of humans when He asks us to have faith in Him.  We aren’t such a trusting group of people so how do we trust in something we can’t really see?   If we do have faith how do we define it in human terms so that we can describe it to someone else who doesn’t know what it means?

There are an infinite number of descriptions I have for the faith I feel when I think about our Heavenly Father.  Faith is the feeling I got when I stood on the high diving board and got ready to jump for the first time.  It’s the feeling I got when I climbed up on a horse to ride by myself for the first time.  It’s that first jump into the pool when your Dad says he will catch you.  It’s riding a bike with no training wheels, driving a car for the first time and going to first grade.  It’s taking that first step into college life and saying yes I will marry you to the man or woman you love.  It’s the death of a grandparent and a cancer diagnosis. It’s getting older and realizing that you can’t recapture the days in the past but you can look forward to a future in heaven with the very One we place our faith in to get us there.  

Faith is an intangible reality. Do you trust that God will save you if You believe?  Do you place your trust in your own abilities or do you place it in the hands of the One who saves. Faith is placing trust in the unseen and believing that God has created a place with Him where we will live forever and letting go of what this life has to offer because it is worthless compared to Heaven.

This morning I was thinking about how each of us takes a chance every day when we walk out of the front door of our house.  Will we live or die?  We all have the terminal illness called mortality.  We are born to die.  I have a choice in how I live my life.  I can live it filled with faith in God or faith in my own abilities.  Personally, I don’t want to depend on my abilities because I don’t stand much of a chance if I do.  Letting go of fear is the first step.  Trusting is second and love is the third.  How do you want to live your life?  Faith is a commodity that can’t be bought but it is the most priceless treasure you will ever receive.     

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You have shown me your faithfulness throughout my life.  It has been hard to let go of my earthly thoughts and focus on my faith in You.  I still struggle with faith when I allow myself to become fearful of what could happen.  I want to place all my faith in You.  There is no safer place to be and I want others to find that same faith in You.

      

Scripture: By Faith We Understand

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Faith at the Dawn of History

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;  for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

The Heavenly Hope

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.  Hebrews 11:1-16