I would like to continue sharing about faith from my post last week. I decided to read the whole book of Hebrews again because it has a lot to say on the subject of faith. There are three things I would like to share with you today.
First, let’s remember what faith is. Hebrews 11 1 says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.” There are a lot of things that we hope for in this life. I often pray and ask God to help me not to focus on (and thus hope for) the things of this world. I want to hope for the things of His world, the Kingdom of God. Then I can be assured that I will get those things. I hope that all my family is saved and that someday when we are all gone from this earth we will continue our lives together in eternity. I also hope my friends that I love so much choose to have Jesus in their hearts so I can spend eternity with them as well. Having this hope is the only thing that gives me peace when one of my loved ones goes home to be with God before me.
The challenge I see is that every person must choose on their own if they want to follow Christ or not. However, I want to encourage you to never lose hope and to continue to have faith that your loved ones will be saved. I truly believe that God hears our prayers about our loved ones coming closer to Him. Sometimes He arranges situations and allows circumstances to happen so people stop what they’re doing and give their lives to Christ. The time it takes and the timing for every person is different so we need to simply continue to pray.
The second thing I wanted to share is about waiting for those promises and what we hope for. Hebrews 11 lists several men of faith that came before us such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Further down on Hebrews 11:13 it says that, “All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God. They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth.” When these men of God realized that they were not of this world, then having faith that God was going to come through became easier. Furthermore, they had the revelation that some things they were not going to see during their lifetime here on earth. They knew, however, that they would see them later in eternity when they met God in heaven.
The third thing I want to share with you today is found in Hebrews 11:39, where it says that, “All of these people we have mentioned have received God’s approval because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had far better things in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race.” My interpretation of this passage (and I don’t claim to be a Bible scholar) is that what all the people before us started through their faith we have to finish. “We” here means all of us that came after them and those who will come after us until Jesus comes again and the prize for which Jesus died (all of us) will finally be realized.
I hope reading today’s blog will inspire you to continue praying for all your loved ones. Never give up! God is always in control.