What is Faith?
(Hebrews 11:1) Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
The two part punch that describes how faith works:
1. "Faith is confidence in what we hope for"
What it means: It's the firm, rock-solid certainty that the good things you are hoping for—God's promises, a better future, provision, healing, or eternal life—are absolutely guaranteed to happen.
The Fun Analogy: Imagine you bought a new house, but it's still being built. You haven't seen the finished house yet (the hope), but you have the signed, legal title deed in your hand (the confidence). You don't just wish the house will be there; you know it will be, because you have the proof (faith) right now.
2. "And assurance about what we do not see"
What it means: It's the proof or evidence of things that are invisible right now, like God Himself, His presence, the Holy Spirit working, or heavenly realities.
The Fun Analogy: Think of Wi-Fi. You can't see the signal, the routers in the sky, or the data flying around, but you are assured it exists because your phone works! You use it, you rely on it, and it produces visible results. Biblical faith is being just as certain about God's unseen reality as you are about the Wi-Fi signal.
So forget crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
Faith is far more powerful than that!
It means you’ve mentally and emotionally decided that what God promised is already locked down. It’s a done deal, even if you can’t see it yet.
The reality is, when we are in the thick of it, struggling, faith and having hope sometimes seems so unreasonable. We pray and get no answer, we cry, we plead, and all we hear in the silence are our sobs. Yes, it is completely and utterly one of the hardest moments in our lives. We are promised by God to be looked out for, and yet sometimes it feels as if He isn’t even there.
What you need to remember is that He is there, even when we don’t feel Him. Sometimes God allows for these moments in our lives, to feel completely alone.
But Why?
Because He is making sure that we still praise Him even when it rains, even when things aren’t going according to how we envisioned it. God prepares us in the silence. He is working behind the scenes, curating the best things for us, aligning the right people to be in our path. So if it seems like he isn’t there, remember He is working things out behind the scenes.
I think of it like a Broadway play. We see the actors playing in their roles, but there is so much more going on behind the scenes then we can’t even begin to know. The lighting, the music, the props, the make up artists, the people who help the actors change outfits so quickly, and more! Without these groups of people, the play would just not be the same, it would probably be boring and pretty bad. God is behind the scenes, making everything we see come to life in the most brilliant way. And although a lot of us sometimes treat Him like a background character, He literally is front and center. The show would not go on without Him. He makes all the moving parts come to fruition and you have to trust that He does that in your life, even in the smallest circumstances that you don’t think matter or are a big deal. He’s taking care of it.
And while you wait, you are actually being molded, growing into the person you NEED to be in order to be READY to receive the gift God has prepared for you.
It’s like a child being given a car at the age of 10. They aren’t ready to drive, they haven’t practiced or gotten the proper permits and licenses they need to be able to drive. What seems like a gift at first would be an absolute disaster. Can you imagine thousands of under aged children driving around, thinking it’s one big video game. Insurance companies would be having a field day with everyone’s premiums skyrocketing. What a burden that would turn out to be. But when the child becomes of age and has had the practice to pass the tests needed, the gift is then exactly that…a gift.
God makes you wait for a reason, not because He doesn’t love you, but because He loves you. So never doubt, keep faith. And believe me I know it’s hard, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to just wait. Wait around until someday. You do your part and yet you’re still waiting. Patience grows thin. Frustrations soar. But I promise, the best thing you can do is to wait on the Lord, for He loves you and always wants what’s best for you. Even in the crushing.