Jul 26thDevotion Hebrews 11:1 We See Him

Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Having faith in God.  Not faith in faith, which profits little if at all, but faith in God.  Faith in God is a firm conviction. This firm conviction is that He watches over us and blesses us.  That He will do as He said He will do.  The cornerstone of what we hope He will do is to bring us home with Him and to live with God Almighty in sight.  Our faith, our firm conviction is stronger than a mountain of solid rock, more sure than the existence of the universe, and more everlasting than all of creation.  This sure belief cannot be pulled from us because it has become rooted and intertwined with every part of who we are.  Faith surrounds and brings to life every single part of the essence and reality of us.  To suppose that faith could be removed from us is to suppose that one could remove our heart and brain and we could continue to be ourselves.

We have faith in God.  Not because of what He does, but because of who He is.  We had known of Him and now we know Him.  We know that He is a righteous and holy God and that He does not change.  We have faith in God not because of what He does.  Sometimes we have in faith in God though we don’t at all know why He is doing what He is doing.  We don’t love God because of what He does but because of who He is.  None of us can say from one day to the next, or one moment to the next, what God will bring about.  What we can know from one day to the next, or one moment to the next, is who God is and that He will never change.  Therefore, what our faith holds onto is knowing who God is, what His intrinsic nature is, and not in what He does.  Now, we can, knowing Him, have peace that He is God and there is none other like Him and that, whatever happens we know that we never lose our biggest prize, our eternal life with Him.  Too often it is easy to base our faith on what happens.  Rather our faith is permanently attached to Him because of who He is, not because of what He does because mostly, we don’t understand what He is doing.  Simply, we have faith in Him because we know Him.  We know Him because we have faith in Him.  He makes that work.

This faith is the substance of things hoped for.  God has made it so that the just (those justified by God through the blood of Jesus) are justified solely by faith in God (Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:8).  Faith is the substance upon that which we hope for.  It is the foundation of the hopes we have because we have hope only because we know that God is good and He rewards and keeps those who have sought Him.  We seek Him for two reasons.  One because we believe that He exists and also because we believe that He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).  God has given us much physical evidence that He exists.  Only a person who has refused to believe what is beyond denial would believe that God does not exist.  No matter what such a person states, no matter how seemingly scholarly, we must know that such a person has ulterior motives, and not any proof, to say that there is no God.  There never has been, and there never will be proof that God does not exist.  It’s impossible to prove.  Only an omniscient being could even attempt to prove that.  The universe, our earth, and even ourselves are all proofs of the existence of God.  There is no such thing as not knowing that God exists, there is only refusing to know that God exists.  God have mercy on those who teach children that He does not exist.  That teaching comes from hell.

Our faith, our firm conviction that God exists and our conviction of who He is, is the only reason we can have hope that all that He has promised us is true.  God is the reason we have hope.  Should an eternal soul remain dead and never be regenerated by God (John 3:18) and thereby end up in hell, that is where hope dies.  Hope dies because forevermore, without cease or reprieve, that soul will remain eternally separated from God.  Forever the condition is final and never changeable.  Since they are eternally without God, they have nothing to hope on, nothing to have faith in.  Without God their remains nothing and no one to have faith in and with no one to have faith in, there is no more hope.  In hell is the first time in any person’s life that one will truly be without hope, and forever so.   But for all the living, for all of us, there is reason for hope and that hope comes from a sure knowledge of God that brings our faith to life and our faith to undefeatable strength.

Faith is the evidence of things not seen.  We are blessed because we believe in a physically unseen Savior and God (John 20:29). Not that He is incapable of being seen.  We who know Him have seen Him and do see Him.  We see Him with spiritual eyes.  We see Him with spiritual understanding.  We see Him because His Holy Spirit lives within testifying of Him and bringing His Word alive to us.  The unredeemed assert that we cannot see God.  That is not true.  It is true that they refuse to see God and so cannot see God, but we can see God. The evidence of God surrounds us and lives within us.  Oh, we see God because we belong to Jesus and we see and understand things that the unredeemed cannot (1 Corinthians 2:5-16).  Faith is the essence of our walk in and with God (Romans 1:17).  With a renewed mind and heart we see by the Spirit what those who see only with physical eyes cannot see.  We too must learn how to live, to walk and to see by faith and not by physical sight.  We see eternal truth not so much by physical eyes as by walking with and in the Spirit, by holding His hand as He walks us along our paths and reveals the mystery and beauty of God to us.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  God is not real, is not knowable and cannot be seen by those who refuse to come to the light to see and to be seen (John 3:20).   However, we who do believe, who do walk by faith and not by sight, do see God.  To us God is more real than any person, place or thing on this earth.  We may visit a place and never see it again.  We may have fast friends one day and the next day be separated never to be reunited.  We say goodnight to friends and we go to our own homes.  Even if we see them the next day, they were separated from us throughout the night.  Now who is more real?  Is it the person whom we see now but not always?  Is it the person who cannot always be beside us?  No, the greatest reality is God!  It is He who lives within and never leaves us and will be with us now and forever.  God is more real to me than any other person who is with me today and maybe never again.  He is more real to me than any mountain that could be here today and gone tomorrow.  We see God.  We know God. God draws us by faith, reveals Himself by faith, and keeps us by faith.  By faith we see God.  Not in some mystical but not real way.  We see God who has revealed Himself to us because we belong to Jesus.  We see God.  I truly hope and pray that all of you do.  Praise our seen God!  Praise God!

Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. 

Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.