By faith...

Hebrews 11:1-16 NASB

Now faith is the assurance of  things  hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.
  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.  By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.  By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death;  and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.  And 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 seek Him.  By faith Noah, being warned  by God  about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
  By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign  land,  dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;  for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.  Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that,  as many descendants   as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
  All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.  And indeed if they had been thinking of that  country  from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better  country,  that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

My thoughts -

I have faith in you. We hear that all the time, right? In movies. On TV. An unlikely hero is about to do something. It may seem impossible. No one else may see the potential. But someone believes. Someone sees just enough in our underdog. Someone says I have faith in you. I believe in you. You can do it. And then our hero prevails. Cue the triumphant music.

But what is faith? What does having faith mean? Is it some empty belief that something can be done? Is it an educated guess based on the available evidence? Does having faith mean the same thing as "knowing" something, even knowing it in spite of evidence to the contrary? More importantly, what does it mean to have faith in God?

The author of Hebrews presents us here with a very good picture of faith. He starts by presenting something of a definition of faith. He says that "faith is the assurance of  things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen". Faith is assurance. Faith is conviction.

I have never seen the face of God. I have never heard the audible voice of God. I have no "real" direct encounters with God. Not in the same way that I do with my wife, or my friends, or my family. I can not touch God. I can not see God. I can not hear God. Not in the same way that I can physical things here in this life.

That does not mean that I have no encounters with the Lord our God. I do. Or I believe I do. I can't prove God. My religion could be a pleasant delusion born out of the despair of death and the fear of being alone in a cold, dark, cruel universe. It could be. But I have faith that it that it isn't.

I am convinced that my experiences with what I perceive as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe are real, that God is, and that I live in a covenant relationship with that God. I am assured and convicted. I am convinced. God is. And I desire to live in a reconciled relationship with God through the grace we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. I have faith.

But does faith stop there? Is faith some kind of academic ascent to something that can not be known or understood or proven completely. If that were the case then this would be a pretty short chapter. But the author of Hebrews goes on, giving us a more complete picture of what faith is and how faith is lived. And faith must be lived.

Here we have examples from scripture of different heroes of the faith and what the did in faith. For brevity's sake I won't rehash them. You can read them above. But you can see both that, by faith these people did some pretty amazing and in some cases rather unlikely things, and that they did them on the promise of things that they couldn't fully see.

From a worldly perspective that seems almost a tragic thing, doesn't it? All of these things done with no real, tangible reason or reward. Just hope and a potentially empty promise. Possibly just a delusion. All of that effort potentially wasted.

And yet the elderly Sarah, against all odds, did conceive. The waters did come and Noah's seemingly ridiculous boat saved him, his family, and a whole bunch of animals. All of these things, though at the time there was no way to be certain, were rewarded.

If the reward is fully tangible then action doesn't really require faith, does it? In the same way, if there is just some empty hope that inspires no action what faith is there?

I have an analogy that I like to us. Suppose there is a chair. You can look at it. Maybe you can't see everything about it, but you can tell some things by looking. You can see that people have sat in it. You can infer from that that it could hold your weight. You can see that it appears to be sturdy and well made. But who can really tell these things? It could be a trick. Someone could be watching, waiting to laugh as this well constructed fake collapses with you in it.

You could decide that's unlikely. When weighing the appearance of the chair, its perceived sturdiness, its comfortable looking cushions, its inviting look, you could decide that you believe that this chair could hold you. Not only that but you could believe that this chair could be quite comfortable. It is inviting. You believe it would hold you nicely. You have faith in the chair, right?

Faith is not found in any belief in the chair. Faith is sitting in it. Belief may lead you to sit. Or you could believe but not feel like sitting. Or you could believe but not strongly enough to sit. After all, you have no real assurance that this isn't some kind of trick or even a delusion. Faith is sitting in chair.

Faith is being convinced, convicted, and then acting it out. Faith is living what you believe. Faith is trusting in a God you can not prove is real and living what that belief demands of you. Faith is being assured of what is hoped for but not seen. And then faith is, in that assurance, living what is believed.