By Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)

I’ve flown half-way around the world in two directions - along with other passengers, having faith that each plane would reach our destination. In the last week, that faith failed with three commercial aircraft. Weather appears to be involved in two of those, humans in the third.

That, along with another chapter in “The Choice Is Yours …”, made me think about where I place my faith. My neurosurgeon’s faith in an MRI reading is part of my faith in the treatment I receive. But, I’m reminded of my mother’s faith in a surgeon and the elective surgery that led to an infection that eventually killed her.

Billions of people have placed their faith in electronics – computers are an absolute necessity in businesses, telephones keep businesses humming – yet we know that electro-magnetic impulses could bring these to a halt. The financial impact of a “Carrington Event” is calculated in the trillions and would be world-wide.

We hope catastrophes won’t happen. They do. So, where do we put our faith. I personally like the examples given in Hebrews chapter 11, where we often read, “By faith …”, followed by a personal example of faith. It is also where we read:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 KJV)

“By faith …” Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses’ parents (go ahead, look up Amram and Jochebed) and Moses himself – all had faith, but there were also problems, as you get to know their stories.

The writer of Hebrews knew many more examples:

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: (Hebrews 11:32 KJV)

He writes of their many trials, imprisonments, torments, reaching the conclusion that the world was not worthy of them. What they faced over the years is included in Hebrews 11:33-38. He also gives us the end of each of their stories:

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40 KJV)

We have the same opportunity as they did to be an example of faith. It is to our advantage to believe in that “some better thing for us,” though we only see its substance in hope, through unseen evidence. Thanks be to God, He also provides us with how to gain such faith:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17 KJV)

His word – not mine. Hear the word of the Lord.