Convinced
Hebrews 11.1 || How can we be sure? How can we be certain? By Faith. This is what faith is! Faith is putting our trust in God and in His promises, which are fulfilled in Jesus!
Hebrews 11.3 || Faith defines the terms of how we struggle with reality. All people work through life by faith. The only difference is: in whom do they put their trust? This means, by definition, when we put our trust in Jesus: we are struggling with life on HIS TERMS.
Dig Deeper: Isaiah 55, Romans 1:16-17, 4:1-25, Galatians 3:2-5, Ephesians 2:8-10 (See also: Luke 6:27-36)
Yet Longing for…
Hebrews 11.13, 15-16 || Faith in one sense is short hand for saying: “not yet.” The “hall of faith” of Hebrews 11 is a story of people who lived in the “not yet.” But they continued to confess that they belonged to yet another land! They were a people not of this world, waiting for the new one. Foreigners here, temporary residents.
Dig Deeper: Jeremiah 29:4-11, Romans 8:19, Ephesians 2:6, Colossians 3:1-4, Philippians 3:20-21 (See also: Isaiah 65-66)
Hebrews 11:39 || This verse is a powerful reminder of how faith works. We live in the tension of the “now” and the “not yet” which leaves us longing for what we do not yet have.
Hebrews 11:40 || When we engage this life on God’s Terms, when we participate in His overall plan: that His family would be brought back together, that His family would be made perfect, that there would be no “them” but rather that there would only be “us”. This is the world on God’s Terms. This is the world approached BY FAITH.