The Description of Faith (Heb. 11:1-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05-26-03

 

My Worship Time                  Focus:  The description of faith

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Hebrews 11:1-3

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  2 For by it the men of old gained approval.  3 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.”  (NASB)  “What is faith?  It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.  It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.  God gave his approval to people in the days of old because of their faith.  By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”  (NLT)

            This is the third section in the book of Hebrews which Dr. Wiersbe calls, “A Superior Principle—Faith.”  The first section was that Christ was a superior Person and the next was that Christ has a superior Priesthood, and these ought to encourage us to put our trust in Him, which is demonstrated by faith. 

            True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.  This description is from “Be Confident” written by Dr. Warren Wiersbe and it is how he describes true Biblical faith.  He goes on to talk about three words in Hebrews 11:1-2 which summarize what true Biblical faith is:  1. Substance, 2. Evidence, and 3. Witness.

Substance means to stand under to support.  An example from the building would be the foundation in which the entire structure stands on.  This is what believer’s stands upon, and of course the object of his faith is Jesus Christ.  The word evidence means conviction, which is how it is translated in the NASB.  “This is the inward conviction from God that what He has promised, He will perform.”  Witness is translated in the NASB as approval, and in the KJV it is translated a good report.  This is how the Strong’s Concordance describes this word:  “to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration.”  This word is used twice in verse four, and one time in verse 5, and also one time in verse 39.  Hebrews 12:1 calls the people that are written about in chapter eleven “so great a cloud of witnesses.”

            As I stated in an earlier SD entry this section of Hebrews has stemmed from chapter 10:38 where the writer quoted Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by faith.”  As believers the blood of Jesus Christ justifies us, and we are now to live by faith, which means as stated above as, “True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at this description of faith I can see that in order to increase my faith I need to continually be in the Word of God so that I can know what His Word says about circumstances that arise in my life and how to handle them in a true Biblical way.  For instance I have learned that a good Biblical principle is not to owe money to others if you do not have to do so, and I blew that by borrowing money on our house to invest in Haven Equity and now there is some doubt as to when or whether we will get this back.  My mistake, and by the grace of God we will receive our money back and I will pay off the loan and never again borrow from it again to invest in anything.  The point to all of this is to believe what the Lord says in His Word and act upon it.

 

The Word of God was challenging, and it was refreshing to me, and it was also convicting to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Just a little side note on this section that is in my diary each and every day, and that is that I would hope that the things that I step out on faith in this section from now on would be things that are already promised or taught in the Scriptures. Today’s entry will be that the Lord will care for our moneys that we have invested with Haven Equity, that we will receive them back.  I do not know any specific promise from the Scriptures that will say that God will take care of this return of money, however His Word does say that He will take care of those who tithe to Him, and that if we confess our sins to Him He will be faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  He will give us peace in the storms of life, He will pray for us in the storms of life, and He will even send us into the storms of life for our good and for His glory, so there are many things in His Word that are principles for this situation. 

 

Today is January 27, 2017, some fourteen years after what is described in this Spiritual Diary and I can say that even though we have never received any payment from those who actually stole our money that God has been and always be faithful, and for that I praise His name.  Many lessons were learned from this difficult situation that we went through and for that I am thankful.