Now when we look in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews we are looking into what we call the “faith” chapter of The Bible; and as we read this chapter of The Bible it will increase our faith, as we will see many people who had to walk by faith in order to obtain the promise of God. Many of them went through a whole lot worse than what we have gone through. We are going to have to establish in our minds that we are going to have to have faith in God. We have faith in our cars — we wouldn’t have got in it if we didn’t. We have faith in the bank — we wouldn’t put our money in it if we didn’t! We have faith in the pew that we sit on in church — we go in and sit right down on it. We have faith that it is going to hold us up! We have faith in our jobs, or we wouldn’t go to work every morning. We ought to have faith in God! He’s proven himself, hasn’t he?

Now first of all understand that verse 1 in this 11th chapter of Hebrews tells us that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is embracing something, confident that you are going to get it even though you don’t see it! Faith has no boundaries; it believes God no matter how long it takes! No matter how long the day or how dark the night, faith never gives up! Faith is being sure and certain of unseen hopes and realities. Faith wins acceptance and rewards from God. We were not there when Jesus died on the cross but by faith we believe it. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior we did not see him coming into our hearts, but by faith we believe that he did! For Romans 10:10 says that “We believe with our hearts and then we confess with our mouth.” We trust his word and act on it no matter what the circumstances are or what the consequences may be. The circumstances may be impossible, and the consequences may be frightening and unknown; but we obey God’s Word just the same and believe him to do what is right and what is best.

The one place where faith ought to be seen in action is in the church! Why? Because we are people of faith! We pay tithes by faith! We don’t see how we can do it but we do it by faith believing in God’s word! The world doesn’t understand this; the world fails to realize that faith is only as good as its object, and the object of our faith is God. Faith is not some “feeling” that we manufacture. It is our total response to what God has revealed. Faith is to a Christian what a foundation is to a house: it gives confidence and assurance that he will stand. So you might say, “Faith is not the evidence of things hoped for, but rather faith is the confidence of things hoped for.” In other words, when you really have faith in God, you say something like this, “I know that it’s going to happen”!  “There is no doubt in my mind. I believe God for myself, my family and my church — that if we do the right thing”, God will honor his word! Faith receives the impossible.

Written by  Rev. George Ellis pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church.