Hebrews 11:1\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Having faith in God.\u00a0 Not faith in faith, which profits little if at all, but faith in God.\u00a0 Faith in God is a firm conviction. This firm conviction is that He watches over us and blesses us.\u00a0 That He will do as He said He will do.\u00a0 The cornerstone of what we hope He will do is to bring us home with Him and to live with God Almighty in sight.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This sure belief cannot be pulled from us because it has become rooted and intertwined with every part of who we are.\u00a0 Faith surrounds and brings to life every single part of the essence and reality of us.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
We have faith in God.\u00a0 Not because of what He does, but because of who He is.\u00a0 We had known of Him and now we know Him.\u00a0 We know that He is a righteous and holy God and that He does not change.\u00a0 We have faith in God not because of what He does.\u00a0 Sometimes we have in faith in God though we don\u2019t at all know why He is doing what He is doing.\u00a0 We don\u2019t love God because of what He does but because of who He is.\u00a0 None of us can say from one day to the next, or one moment to the next, what God will bring about.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Therefore, what our faith holds onto is knowing who God is, what His intrinsic nature is, and not in what He does.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Too often it is easy to base our faith on what happens.\u00a0 Rather our faith is permanently attached to Him because of who He is, not because of what He does because mostly, we don\u2019t understand what He is doing.\u00a0 Simply, we have faith in Him because we know Him.\u00a0 We know Him because we have faith in Him.\u00a0 He makes that work.<\/p>\n
This faith is the substance of things hoped for.\u00a0 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<\/b>).\u00a0 Faith is the substance upon that which we hope for.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We seek Him for two reasons.\u00a0 One because we believe that He exists and also because we believe that He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6<\/b>).\u00a0 God has given us much physical evidence that He exists.\u00a0 Only a person who has refused to believe what is beyond denial would believe that God does not exist.\u00a0 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. \u00a0There never has been, and there never will be proof that God does not exist.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to prove.\u00a0 Only an omniscient being could even attempt to prove that.\u00a0 The universe, our earth, and even ourselves are all proofs of the existence of God.\u00a0 There is no such thing as not knowing that God exists, there is only refusing to know that God exists.\u00a0 God have mercy on those who teach children that He does not exist.\u00a0 That teaching comes from hell.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 God is the reason we have hope.\u00a0 Should an eternal soul remain dead and never be regenerated by God (John 3:18)<\/b>\u00a0and thereby end up in hell, that is where hope dies.\u00a0 Hope dies because forevermore, without cease or reprieve, that soul will remain eternally separated from God.\u00a0 Forever the condition is final and never changeable. \u00a0Since they are eternally without God, they have nothing to hope on, nothing to have faith in.\u00a0 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. \u00a0In hell is the first time in any person\u2019s life that one will truly be without hope, and forever so.\u00a0 \u00a0But 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.<\/p>\n
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.\u00a0 We are blessed because we believe in a physically unseen Savior and God (John 20:29<\/b>). Not that He is incapable of being seen.\u00a0 We who know Him have seen Him and do see Him.\u00a0 We see Him with spiritual eyes.\u00a0 We see Him with spiritual understanding.\u00a0 We see Him because His Holy Spirit lives within testifying of Him and bringing His Word alive to us.\u00a0 The unredeemed assert that we cannot see God.\u00a0 That is not true.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Oh, we see God because we belong to Jesus and we see and understand things that the unredeemed cannot (1 Corinthians 2:5-16<\/b>).\u00a0 Faith is the essence of our walk in and with God (Romans 1:17<\/b>).\u00a0 With a renewed mind and heart we see by the Spirit what those who see only with physical eyes cannot see.\u00a0 We too must learn how to live, to walk and to see by faith and not by physical sight.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 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<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0 However, we who do believe, who do walk by faith and not by sight, do see God.\u00a0 To us God is more real than any person, place or thing on this earth.\u00a0 We may visit a place and never see it again.\u00a0 We may have fast friends one day and the next day be separated never to be reunited.\u00a0 We say goodnight to friends and we go to our own homes.\u00a0 Even if we see them the next day, they were separated from us throughout the night.\u00a0 Now who is more real?\u00a0 Is it the person whom we see now but not always?\u00a0 Is it the person who cannot always be beside us?\u00a0 No, the greatest reality is God!\u00a0 It is He who lives within and never leaves us and will be with us now and forever.\u00a0 God is more real to me than any other person who is with me today and maybe never again.\u00a0 He is more real to me than any mountain that could be here today and gone tomorrow.\u00a0 We see God.\u00a0 We know God. God draws us by faith, reveals Himself by faith, and keeps us by faith.\u00a0 By faith we see God.\u00a0 Not in some mystical but not real way.\u00a0 We see God who has revealed Himself to us because we belong to Jesus.\u00a0 We see God.\u00a0 I truly hope and pray that all of you do.\u00a0 Praise our seen God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hebrews 11:1\u00a0\u2013 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.\u00a0 Having faith in God.\u00a0 Not faith in faith, which profits little if at all, but faith in God.\u00a0 Faith in God is a firm conviction. This firm conviction is that He watches over us and blesses us.\u00a0 That…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,1841,1969,104,100,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-ephesians","tag-galatians","tag-hebrews","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}