Living Our Faith

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice -- the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him." Romans 12:1

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By Faith

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The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Hebrews 11:1-22.

Throughout the first 10 chapters of the book of Hebrews, the author has carefully laid out the case for Jesus. He has proclaimed that Jesus “is a better way, the true way, the only way” (Stan Mast, CEP This Week article). The author wrote to those whose faith was wavering in the face of persecution (see Heb. 10:32-35). The author’s concern was that these new Christians who had already endured persecution would be lured away from their faith and back to the “country they had left” (Heb. 11:15). And so he encouraged them, “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Heb. 10:39).

Then, in chapter 11, the author challenges his hearers, and us today, to live boldly by faith because that is the how God calls us to live. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). That is the translation from the 2011 NIV, however, another possible translation is this: “Faith is the substance (or “being sure”) of what we hope for, and being certain of what we cannot see.” After all, faith is not something intensely personal that lacks Truth, as people claim today. Faith is the solid rock on which we stand. Faith allows us to see beyond the physical to what is truly real – that is God, his promises, their fulfillment in Jesus, and our eternal home with Him.

As commentator George Guthrie states, “The whole point of his example list is to provide voluminous evidence that faith is the posture by which people live lives of purposeful impact by and for God.” The author gives us this list to encourage us to live lives of faith, to walk by faith. Living by faith means that we act confidently in accordance to God’s word, we act in response to God’s promises even though they may be far off, and we trust that God works miracles in ordinary people by faith. In all times and places we are called to live by faith, no matter the outcome, with the assurance that faith is rewarded by God (even if not rewarded immediately or in this life). [George Guthrie, NIVAC: Hebrews]

In their song, “By Faith,” Keith and Kristyn Getty show us what it means for us to live by faith:

By faith we see the hand of God
In the light of creation's grand design
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness
Who walk by faith and not by sight

By faith our fathers roamed the earth
With the pow'r of His promise in their hearts
Of a holy city built by God's own hand
A place where peace and justice reign

Chorus
We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We'll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith the prophets saw a day
When the longed-for Messiah would appear
With the pow'r to break the chains of sin and death
And rise triumphant from the grave

By faith the church was called to go
In the pow'r of the Spirit to the lost
To deliver captives and to preach good news
In ev'ry corner of the earth

By faith the mountain shall be moved
And the pow'r of the gospel shall prevail
For we know in Christ all things are possible
For all who call upon His name

The author of Hebrews calls us to a life of faith - a calling that extends beyond the sphere of church involvement to include our family time, our work, our education, our entertainment, our social life and every other context of our lives. We are called, by faith, to live our lives with confidence in the unseen God, His promises, their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and His eternal reward. 

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