A Reflection on Faith

Faith without works is dead. And dead faith don't work!

1 Kings 11:9
God was furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God's orders.

Hebrews 11 (The Message)

Faith in What We Don't See

1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see...

4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain....

5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely...

7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land... As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home... Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.

11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

17-19 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God...

20 By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.

21 By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.

22 By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.

23 By an act of faith, Moses' parents hid him away for three months after his birth...

24-28 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house...

29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.

30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.

31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.

32-38 I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more— Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets....Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn't deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.

39-40 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."


ACT ON YOUR FAITH...

Faith is opposite of fear:

FEAR -

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

FAITH -

Fantastic
Adventures
In
The
Here (and NOW)!!

Act on your faith, that which God has called you to do.

Be IN Courage.


United with you in strength and victory,
Linda Michelle