A WALK IN FAITH

I am glad that so many of you liked my Sunday post last week. It was amazing to read Leah’s account of her near-death experience and I found great comfort in her words. Death is something that we all will experience and it is scary to think about. Most of us have had someone we love to pass on and her account of what they might have experienced eased some of the pain and worry that I had felt.

I was reading Hebrews chapter 11 one day this week. This is an entire chapter devoted to FAITH. What is faith exactly? That very thing is addressed in verse 1.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Who is Right?

Have you ever heard the saying, “Seeing is believing?” I am sure most of you have heard that at one time or another. Faith is believing without seeing and for some that might be an impossible task. I read a devotional from Pastor Rick Warren where he was talking about how two people can experience the same thing but have a completely different outlook.

• In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first cosmonaut into space. When the cosmonaut returned to Earth, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev declared they’d been to space and didn’t see any god there.
• About 10 months later, the United States sent John Glenn into space. He circled the earth three times on his Mercury mission, came back down, and told the world, “I saw God everywhere! I saw his glory in the galaxy. I saw his splendor in the universe. I saw his majesty in the stars.”

Both men were right. They both saw what they wanted to see. One looked at the majesty before him and saw God’s work and the other saw darkness. One had faith and the other didn’t.

Acts of Faith:

In Hebrews 11 we are reminded of so many acts of faith. I have marveled many times at the faith of Abraham who took his son Isaac to be an offering to the Lord. I can’t imagine the torment that he must have been experiencing at the thought of sacrificing his child.

What about Noah? Can you imagine the thoughts that went through his mind? I can just hear what his friends or neighbors thought when he started to build a gigantic boat without a rain cloud in sight.

We know that Sara was at first skeptical when the Lord told her that she would bear a child after she was well past the childbearing age. Who could blame her? I am sure that she had prayed and prayed and prayed for a child but that prayer had never been answered. But, she was faithful and she believed in her heart that the Lord could deliver on his promise.

Can you imagine the faith it took to walk into the Red Sea even though the waters were parted? Can you imagine the faith it took to wipe blood on the door of your home for the Passover? Can you imagine the faith it took to fight the giant Goliath?

The Choice:

Everday we have a choice about faith. When the Lord tells us to do something and we obey that is an act of faith. The Bible is full of instructions such as love thy neighbor or obey your mother and father. Why, because He said so.

In Mark 11 it says,

²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Have faith! Believe that it is already done! It will be yours! And remember Jeremiah 29:11, ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Have A Blessed Day!