#16 2016 Devotional Hebrews11:1. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
In the first ten chapters the author of Hebrews glorifies Christ and explains why He is the Saviour of God’s people foreshadowed in the Old Testament beginning in Gen. 3:15. Hebrews 11 is an introduction to chapters 12-13 and is a definition of the gift of faith as it is exemplified by those who the author of Hebrews calls: “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12 :1-3). These are the heroes of faith in Scripture; men and women who practiced the gift of faith. They believed God and the promises of God but did not fully understand the promise until fulfilled in Christ. They are made perfect along with us (Heb. 11:39-40) because Christ’s Salvation reaches back into eternity. Hebrews 12:1-3 hinges on chapter 11 and encourages us to practice the faith of the Old Testament church. We are encouraged to deal with sin, to persevere in the task Jesus had given us and to keep our eyes on Jesus so that we are not discouraged and not give up.
We turn to the verse for the week. We can see two parts: first “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for…” Is faith the same as hope? Yes, and No. Hope springs up from our hearts, from our imperfect desires, yet, one cannot live without hope. We hope for something better, we hope for healing if ill, we hope for reconciliation in conflict, and as followers of Jesus we hope in Christ. On the other hand, hope is as faith does, we have confidence of the guiding of the Holy Spirit, we expect His leading and trust His leading; leading that informs our hope and builds our faith!
Second: “…and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith is about what we do not see and about what we cannot see. The author gives us an example: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (verse 3 Ch. 11) We lack faith when we do not see what is obvious even when we can’t see it. To me it it obvious that the Holy Spirit is working at Acre Bible School. Are we afraid to see it, are we blinded by preconceptions, or blinded by an ill perceived level of difficulty of working in that part of the world? It seems to be all of the above! It is human to question the creation of the world as God presents it to us because there is physical evidence that the world is older and has gone through major changes not mentioned in Scripture. The Bible is not a science book, but faith dictates that we believe God created it (Ex nihilo) out of nothing. Do we understand it all? No! Do we understand how the Holy Spirit works? No!
That is what this verse is all about, faith informs hope, unwavering confidence, and absolute assurance that God will accomplice His purposes and that by His Grace He equips and empowers us as is exemplified by God’s people in Hebrews chapter 11. Love drives out fear, may God increase our faith! Amen and Amen.
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