Hebrews Chapter 11, known as “the faith chapter,” is truly amazing to read when you’re really, really digesting it. It caused me to marvel at faith—the faith of all those mentioned as well as just in general. Faith is such an integral—one could say most important—element of our relationship with God.
What is faith, really? This chapter in Hebrews starts out describing it as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Later, those “things not seen” seem to point to things like a baby conceived in (very) old age (verse 11), a son, and then a whole people rescued from death (verses 17-19, 28), and most of all the promise from God of an inheritance: a better place…a better way…in essence, the promise of Himself (verses 8, 10, 13-16, 40; Hebrews 12:1-2).
This faith is the belief that all of this is true, and that it is on these things we need to be fixing the eyes of our hearts and minds instead of on earthly things (Colossians 3:1-2). And it’s there that we truly have hope. Actually glorious hope, as long as our gaze can be kept there. Sigh. So many distractions these days. But the most beautiful and glorious (and merciful) thing about faith is is that it’s a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9); so if we just receive that gift, and then walk with that gift in us, we are able not only to have our own wonderful (and pleasing to God) relationship with Him (Hebrews 11:6), but we can then also become part of the “great cloud of witnesses” who share Him and His love—this Living Hope—with the world (Hebrews 12:1; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 2:10).
In Jesus’s wonderful and precious Name. Amen.
(Written by a dear sister at L’Chaim.)
Blessings,
Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman
L’Chaim Messianic Congregation