What Faith Is

¹ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. HEBREWS 11

In the early 70s, there was this comic strip called Beetle Bailey. The sergeant fell from the edge of a cliff and was hanging on to a tree branch for his dear life. This was his dilemma: There’s no way he could climb through the steep and no way could he survive a fall. While he was pondering on what to do, he heard a voice from the top of the cliff. The voice asked, “Do you believe in God?” The sergeant nodded. The voice asked again, “Do you believe I am God?” The sergeant nodded again. The voice said, “Then let go. Stop hanging on to that tree branch.”     

Faith is believing.

⁶ Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. HEBREWS 11

Faith is listening to God’s voice and humbly submitting to it. 

³⁹ Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will. MATTHEW 26

Faith is knowing that all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27).

⁷ [God] spreads out the northern skies over empty space; He suspends the earth over nothing. ⁸ He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. ⁹ He covers the face of the full moon, spreading His clouds over it. ¹⁰ He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. ¹¹ The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at His rebuke. ¹² By His power He churned up the sea; by His wisdom He cut Rahab to pieces. ¹³ By His breath the skies became fair; His hand pierced the gliding serpent. ¹⁴ And these are but the outer fringe of His works. JOB 26

Faith is praying to the Unseen and trusting without any tinge of hesitation or doubt that He will grant whatever you ask Him, and answer your inquiries.   

¹⁰ Has the Lord ever disappointed anyone who put his hope in Him? Has the Lord ever abandoned anyone who held Him in constant reverence? Has the Lord ever ignored anyone who prayed to Him? SIRACH 2

Faith is believing you can do what God says you can do.

²³ I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. MATTHEW 11

Faith is going through life without worrying about anything. “Faith is to entrust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence,” said St. Augustine.

Faith is sharing your faith with your neighbors, with eagerness and conviction.

Faith is seeing God in everything.

⁵ I meditate on all Your works and consider what Your hands have done. PSALM 143

⁷ We live by faith, not by sight. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

¹⁰ Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? JOB 2

There is nothing embarrassing if you are a professed atheist or skeptic today and nothing wrong if you are a man of flickering faith. Nobody on earth, not even the Twelve, started with big faith. Everyone starts in disbelief or with little faith.

²⁵ Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.” JOHN 20

²⁴ I do have faith but not enough. Help me have more! MARK 9 tev

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” LUKE 17

Whatever your level of faith is, God can improve it if you allow Him.

Question: Must little faith be remedied? Yes, it will make a big difference in our journey through life. Little faith looks at things and says, “God can do it.” Big faith says, “God will do it.” Great faith says, “It’s done.”

³³ Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. JEREMIAH 33

²³ Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of our life. PROVERBS 4 nlt

¹⁷ Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of the Messiah. ROMANS 10

²¹ Do not let [My words] out of your sight, keep them within your heart; ²² for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body. PROVERBS 4

Faith starts in the mind. Just as no one will really know how cold or deep the water in the river is until he takes the plunge, so you won’t know God until you seek Him and His righteousness with all your mind. Take the plunge.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ⁴ By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the skies and as countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they were looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. ¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death… ²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of the Messiah as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. ²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. ³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. ³² And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. HEBREWS 11