ItS MeEeEe!

During all my time of being a Christian, I’ve always thought that to ‘have faith’ is the entrusting of whatever you do to God, and believe that whatever the outcome is, it is for the best and what God has in mind for us.

Well yesterday, I was given a greater insight into what “faith” really means, and on how small a scale I have been looking at this issue entirely.

Hebrews 11 – 12:3

The bible defines faith as “the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Faith understands that God is the creator of everything, it pleases God, makes us obey him, says “no” to the wrong things, is patient, perseveres, and allows us to see miracles, and is also something that can be seen through our everyday lives and actions.

The bible records the great faith of many people; at first reading the Bible seemed like just a record of what happened in the past between God and Man. Why would God remember His promises, despite all the terrible things that the Israelites did, going to other idols and disobeying God?

But the greatness of the faith of these great men still astound me now, after one day past the sermon. The fact that one can just do what God instructs, although the reward is not something that God gives now, or even a few years down the road. If we were to put ourselves in their shoes, it would probably be unfathomable – to live in a foreign land all your life like Abraham just because God told you that would be the land your countless descendants will inherit, or build a gigantic ark just because God said that a few decades down, there would be an enormous flood? Or march about the walls around a city for seven days just because it was instructed by God? Though not mentioned, I believe that Mary’s faith, when the angel told her about the child conceived in her womb, can also be an example of great faith, willingness to undergo all the social pressures, ridicule by others. Or Moses, who refused to be acknowledged as the Pharoah’s son and was willing to accept all the ill-treatment that his fellow Israelites were facing. To be able to look beyond “today”, into a future that you cannot see, might not partake in, and just believe. Into the heavenly future that God has provided for us…

It seems so difficult. If I were to put myself into their shoes, I can’t say for certain that I would be able to do that.

How great, faith actually is. To follow and not question. Sometimes, like how a friend sometimes laughs and say, blind faith. How the Bible in itself contradicts this; where faith is following without questioning, while the Bible provides all the support in the past on why one, should possibly believe and have faith. In that sense, perhaps it is a paradox. But it is to help us know and understand that our God is one that keeps His promises. This further highlights the greatness of the faith of these people written in the Bible, as they believed, without whatsoever records, but truly following through “blind faith”.

Some people may think that it is stupid and weak, to believe in a thing called faith. But I feel that it takes one great courage, to look beyond the logic and things that we can believe from what we hear and see, and take that leap of faith into what we do not know.

And that, is something I am still learning.

Faith.