“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 KJV
Faith. It’s the element that can move mountains. It’s the “mojo” needed to stand before a giant and proclaim its pending doom. It’s the driving force that leads an outcast woman with an issue of blood to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment.
I love how The Message version of the Bible displays this Scripture: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”
There’s so much I could glean from this interpretation. Faith is a core component to our Christian walk and helps us cling to hope in Christ. It acts as an undercurrent, if you will, from which derives our confidence in answers unseen.
Further in Hebrews 11, we read the “Hall of Faith,” a listing of people from the OT that displayed great faith. By faith…
- Abel offered a better sacrifice to God than his brother Cain
- Noah built an ark
- Abraham sojourned into a land he did not know (later received as an inheritance) and gave his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God
- Sarah had a child in her old age
- Moses was hidden for three months after he was born and, as a man, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, enduring affliction with the people of God
Each of these people, having lived by faith, caught glimpses of an eternal promise through temporal things. They lived and died by and with their faith, promoting them to biblical commendation and qualifying them for exemplar status.
Without life application, the Bible is reduced to mere stories for topical use. The question I always ask myself (or the children in my Sunday school classroom) is: how does this apply to us today?
My short answer is: Have faith. Be faithful. Yes, it is a choice. In Psalm 119:30, King David says, “I have chosen the way of faithfulness.” We must commit to having faith in God for He is faithful. How can we do this? In Mark 11:24, we are told, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Believe and it will be yours. Faith is a verb. It is an action. It is the product of hoping for the unseen. It is refusing to be a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6).
So let’s commit, together, to stand on our firm foundation of faith as we endeavor to be made more and more like Him.
-Jessica Taylor (Children’s Church Director)