Faith in God
“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
Because of it the ancients were well attested. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them.”Hebrews 11:1, 16b
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews defines “faith” and recounts the role of faith in the history of the Jewish People beginning with Abraham, our “Father of Faith.” Faith is not a thing or a feeling or a state and it cannot be understood in isolation. Faith must be understood within the context of relationship because it is in someone that we put out faith. For Christians, faith is our response to God’s unceasing call and unconditional love and mercy. To have faith in God is to know that the relationship that exists between God and His People is something that transcends the time and space, something that is beyond us, and something that comes with love, the love of the Father.
Although Abraham was not always believing at the first instance, but with time and with a deepening of his relationship with God, his slow of heart became a heart that pumped for love of God to the point of being willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham knew that God was faithful and that behind everything God does there is a reason, a reason for his ultimate good.
Brothers and sisters, God too calls us. God is not ashamed of us, even when we fall and fall again. God wants our good, but He will not force anything upon us. How is our faith? How deeply do we trust God? How intimately do we know God? We cannot have faith in someone we do not know. Perhaps sometimes along this journey of faith we trip and stumble because we do not really know who God is. Our God is personal and relational. He wants to know us and He wants to be known by us. Let us spend a few moments today in prayer, asking the Lord to reveal Himself to us and also to give us the courage and confidence to open our hearts to Him, so that we might come to truly and unreservedly place our faith in God.
