There’s something about faith that I can’t describe. Some think faith is like a lever we pull to get what we want. Others think that it’s a name tag we wear to identify ourselves as Christians. There are more teachings about the subject of faith than there are days of the year. And still, there’s something about it that I can’t express. It’s indescribable, inconceivable, and a mystery that is simultaneously simple. Faith is more than part of a mathematical equation that works in our favor. It’s more than a tag that identifies us.
I don’t pretend to be a great scholar or be an authority on the subject. That would be overstepping at the highest level. But, there’s something about faith that even Bible scholars struggle to explain. Who can give adequate definition to what faith is beyond what we read in Hebrews?
Faith for dummies
Faith is, it is not a “was.” And faith isn’t an occasional feeling. We live in it day by day. I’ve compiled a short list of what I have learned from Hebrews 11:1 about faith. You might call this list “Faith for Dummies.” (Sorry, a play on words from all those books “For Dummies.”):
- Faith is “now.” This means, at least in my “dummies” translation, that faith isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ever-present reality in our lives.
- Faith is the “substance” of our hope. Faith is what anchors our hope. It is our faith that enables us to “see” what we believe without seeing with our physical eyes.
- Faith is the “evidence” of what we don’t see. Faith helps us to reach for what we can’t naturally see or touch.
- Finally, faith doesn’t deny physical realities, it just supersedes them. Faith doesn’t, for example, deny our need to pay bills. Faith just says, “God will make a way even though I don’t see it.”
Something else I’ve learned about faith
Something else I’ve learned about faith is that I can’t live without it. That might seem like an oversimplification but remember, I need faith for dummies. I like simple, God does as well. Faith isn’t out of our reach, God has made having and releasing faith quite simple.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
romans 10:8-11 NKJV
Many of us are afraid to live by faith because we’re not sure if God will come through. We fear to speak what we believe; that God will work even when we don’t understand how. It’s easier to agree with everyone around us, “It’s impossible.” But God has assured us that all things are possible
Something about faith makes me trust in God’s faithfulness
Everyone has preconceived ideas of what it means for God to come through. If God doesn’t do as we expect, it must mean that God has failed or faith doesn’t work. God’s not in the business of shaming us, His reputation is secure. The question is, do we really trust that He has our best interests at heart?
I don’t know how I could manage the storms of life without faith. While faith is not something our minds can’t understand, that doesn’t mean that faith denies reality. Faith goes beyond our ability to understand. The rub comes from our need to understand when what is happening in life often goes beyond our pay grade. My grandfather wisely said, “If you understood that you don’t understand anything, then at least you’ve understood something.”
In my “dummies” translation, faith is not understanding with our minds. It is trusting and relying on the absolute faithfulness of God. And as I grow in my relationship with Him, I learn to trust Him more. Even so, I will likely fail from time to time because I am a simple human. But God will never fail. He cannot fail and it’s in that truth that our faith lies (see Josh. 21:45).
