Guest Blogger Bill Green

What is faith?

I normally think of faith as belief in something or someone. From a Christian perspective, faith is belief and trust in God. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” So we know that faith is not just a hope. It is a confident expectation without having concrete proof. Many of us have read Hebrews 11 multiple times. We see many examples of people in the bible that had faith. As I read this again, I noticed that faith is much more than a belief or even a confident expectation. These examples God gives us in Hebrews 11 show us that faith is confident expectation that results in action. Most of the time, this action was against the grain of the world’s philosophy and posed the risk of embarrassment, ridicule, or even persecution.

Let’s look at some examples:

1.​By faith, Abel brought a more acceptable sacrifice that resulted in his death.

2.​By faith, Noah built the ark when it had never rained and probably got laughed at and ridiculed.

3.​By faith, Abraham obeyed God and left his home to go to an unknown place while risking the comfort and safety of his homeland.

4.​By faith, Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice. This would get you thrown into prison at the least. But the greatest loss would be that of his beloved son.

5.​By faith Joseph said Israel would leave Egypt. How many folks do you think believed him or thought he was a crazy old man?

6.​By faith Moses’ parents hid him and risked their own lives.

7.​By faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Talking about going against the grain….

8.​By faith, the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days. Would you suggest this tactic to an Army general?

9.​By faith, Rahab the prostitute welcomed and hid the spies, risking her own life.

These actions weren’t intended to put people in harm’s way. They were intended to show people’s weakness, so that God’s strength and wisdom would be shown to the world and he would gain glory for himself. If I have learned anything by reading through the bible chronologically, it is that the big picture is all about bringing God glory, not about us living comfortable lives.

In light of these examples that God provides in His word, I have to ask myself: Do I really have faith, if I am not taking action to bring God glory that goes against the world’s ways and presents risk and ridicule to me? As the author of Hebrews in chapter 11 verse 32 so eloquently says, “How much more do I need to say?”