Faith is....

Hebrews 11:1 is vastly misunderstood, partly because of the language differences in the Greek and our understanding of similar words in the English language and partly because people take them out of context and do not read before or after the verse.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Looking at the original language and meaning/concepts of their understanding, this verse, more accurately translated would read... Faith is a firmness of mind in the expectation of what God has promised, the doubtlessness or sureness that has come, by way of testing, of matters or facts not understood or discerned.

We understand HOPE to mean a wish or want for something to be true or to happen; the strength of our hope is directly connected to the strength of OUR desire. However, biblical Hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised with the strength of that hope based solely on HIS faithfulness.

After that verse, the Bible lists the people, who by faith, accomplished many things. Each account tells the story of a person who had faith in what God showed them or told them as it relates to them personally. It was their experience that tested and proved their faith in God to perform His promise. Faith, in this verse, is not saying that we can ask God for things that we hope to be true or for things that we wish to happen...it is not about out desires, it is about God's faithfulness to perform His Word. The stories in Hebrews are about God performing His corporate Word, as with Able and Cain or His personal Word, as with Noah and Abraham.

The modern church has failed the body of Christ in that it does not teach an accurate translation of God's Word. So many are confused, and rightly so, because what they have been taught does not seem to work. The result is that they lose “faith” in God..however, it is not the God who wrote the Word that they are losing faith in....it is an image that has been taught. God says that you will find Him when you diligently seek Him....that is on each of us; a personal challenge. That is His promise.....if we want to find God, we must do the seeking ourselves.....through prayer, through digging in His Word, through praising Him....it is a personal journey, a personal walk with Almighty God.

This walk with God is not without trials, or heartache, and there are costs to following Him and His Word. However, the peace and calm while going through the storms of life cannot be matched by anything this side of Heaven. God also tells us that He is angry about the abuse of His children just as we get angry about it. He also promises us that, if we leave it up to Him, He will avenge the wrongs that have been perpetrated against us. He is also a comfort for the times when tragedy happens that we do not understand, ie the death of my dad on the eve of my favorite holiday, Christmas and the death of my first son. We all have events in our life that have scarred us, left us raw, confused, angry and resentful. It is time spent with God that helps the sting of these events fade and our hearts and minds to be restored.

God is good...His ways are Best, even when we cannot understand them.