Time Traveling Faith - Himalayan Heights - April 27 Readings: Hebrews 11:1 – What Faith Is

 Hebrews 11 - The Hall of Faith

All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.

Today's Reading:  Hebrews 11

If you have time, read the entire chapter, Hebrews 11. Our key passage today is verse 1, and you should spend time focusing and meditating on that verse. This is the shortest passage we will have all year in our readings, perhaps, but it may be one of the most difficult.

11:1  Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

Please, before you read my devotional, which attempts to explain what this verse means, take some time to think this through prayerfully and consider what it means.

Through the Bible Readings: 1 Samuel 13-14, Luke 17:20–37, Psalm 52, Proverbs 11:25-26

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: Time Traveling Faith

I have always been intrigued by stories about time travel, from the silly series about a souped-up Delorean to stories in books or movies that bend your mind with history-altering scenarios. Wouldn't it be great to travel back and see some of the events of history or go forward and see what the world will become?

Today, we begin to scale a new peak in our tour through the Himalayan Heights of Scripture. We've looked at Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 4-5, now we look at what is often called the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11, in which the writer (no one knows who it is) tells us what faith is and how it works and what effect it has on our lives. Since we are saved by faith and walk by faith, it is important that we understand faith.

And many people do not. Faith has become synonymous with positive thinking, with refusing to see the negatives or admitting that things are rough. I've had friends who believed that faith was "confessing" that they were well when they were sick or that they were rich when they were poor. In the Bible, faith is never a denial of life's realities. Neither is it a quantity that you need to work up in a certain amount to move God's heart. "If I can only get up enough faith, God will answer my prayer." True faith in any amount, even a small amount like the grain of a mustard seed, is enough to move mountains. It isn't about the amount of our faith, but the object of our faith - the power of the God of heaven.

So, what is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says it is the "reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen." That is not two separate things, but Hebrew parallelism, where the same things is said twice, with only a slight variation in meaning.

Everything we love and believe in Christianity is unseen. We cannot see God or hear him (physically). We are called to deny ourselves today so that we might live for rewards that will not come until the end of time, until Jesus returns or we go to see him.

But I do not live in heaven and the promises of heaven can seem very far away during a pandemic, or in times of hardship, loneliness, persecution, or other troubles. So what do I do? I have faith. Faith is time travel. I travel through time and live on the basis of the promises of God today. I travel through time and rely on the future glory of heaven today. I travel through time and consider my heavenly rewards as I face my daily trials. Faith is the reality of what I hoped for. It becomes real to me because I believe, because I trust God - that is faith. Faith is the only evidence I have that all God says is true, but I believe. I trust God. By faith, I hold on to the promises of God and seek his glory even when my eyes tell me that it cannot happen.

Every single one of the examples that we see in Hebrews 11 had a similar experience. They had circumstances that told them that God must have lied and things could never work out, but they held fast to God's promises in faith and walked in obedience. They walked by faith, not by sight and they received their reward.

Father, I thank you that I can trust in you no matter what, that I can travel to my eternal future and bring it back to these difficult days and live on the basis of it today! May I walk in faith and not by sight. 

Think and Pray:

Do you live on the basis of your circumstances or do you "time travel" to God's promises and the future glories that await you as a child of God and live them out today?