“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
How can faith become more than something spoken? How can faith become a lifestyle?
The Bible teaches that the righteous shall live by faith (Romans 1:17), and that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). God’s heart for His children, above all other pursuits, represents a call to genuinely and daily live by faith.
Faith does not represent optimistic responses to the dire straits of life. Faith does not merely express a cerebral response to truth.
According to Hebrews 11:1, faith expresses the confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see. Often, we may read this verse as if two separate descriptions of faith are being offered: faith is confidence and faith is assurance. But, the structure of this verse encourages us to read these two descriptions together as one definition.
Faith is confidence (Greek: hypostasis), meaning substance or assurance. Figuratively, the term can indicate the same message as a “title” to a piece of property – entitling someone to what is guaranteed. This meaning defines the classic translation of the King James Version of the Bible, “faith is the substance of things hoped for.” This same term, substance, was earlier used in Hebrews 1:3 to describe Jesus as the exact representation of God’s nature (substance). So, faith defines the soul’s confident assurance in and focus upon God, who made Himself fully known in Christ. In this way, our lives rest in the unseen reality of the abiding presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus is our hope. Living daily in this reality, as if one could actually see this with physical eyes, defines true faith. The confidence embraces the truth of “Christ in me”, and the assurance (Greek: elegchos) signifies the proof (or, the “proof positive”) of this reality experienced in our lives. Faith is the confidence which brings the assurance.
The conclusion of these two descriptions of faith, confidence and assurance, simply and profoundly represent the lifestyle of the child of God: daily walking with confidence in God because of a personal encounter (relationship) with Jesus. With every truth from God’s Word, and with every part of God’s perfect nature made known in Jesus, the Christian daily lives with his or her confidence totally and completely wrapped up in Christ Jesus, the Savior of our souls.
When you truly know Jesus, your daily faith steps are based upon the reality of the greatest truth ever: Christ in you. And there is nothing more substantial or solid, and nothing more evidenced to our eyes of faith.
So today, walk by faith. Do not sweat the uncertainties, the challenges, nor the frustrations of life. Christ is in you. Rest in this fact, and form your thoughts, decisions, responses, and actions from this glorious fact. For, this represents true faith.
By faith, your steps will be as firm as the truth of Jesus. Now, that’s the only way to live!
Blessings!
READ
Read Hebrews 11, and be blessed by the strong evidence of faith in normal lives like you and me.
