IN FAITH
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 (RSV)
12Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Hebrews 11:12 (RSV)
Since this column is called “In Faith,” I thought I would write this time about faith itself. The word “faith” is often set aside the word “belief.” But, there are differences between the two concepts.
Belief means acknowledgment in a Supreme Being, or a supposition. It has a different “flavor” to it than faith. Faith really means “trust,” in someone. The examples used from the book of Hebrews point to not just belief, but to faith in the being, in which the author “believes.”
Abraham is lifted up as an example of faith, along with many others in the Letter to the Hebrews, because the faithful men and women written about in that book, especially in Chapter 11, took action on their belief. And that is what makes “faith” into a more dynamic mindset than simply belief.
To have faith in God, means that we are willing to listen to direction from God, and take action on God’s direction(s).
Now, I know that the way I’ve been writing this sounds philosophical or theological. And, it may even sound too theoretical rather than practical. But, here’s “where the rubber meets the road.”
When Abraham was called by God to leave Ur of Chaldea behind, and to go to a land, which neither he nor his wife, Sarah, had seen, there was an element of risk to that action. They didn’t know what was ahead of them. They didn’t know what would be required of them as they walked in faith with God.
When Abraham (originally named Abram) and Sarah (originally named Sarai) left Ur, they were 75 years old and 65 years old respectively. So, they were senior citizens. (If AARP had existed back then, they probably would have been card-carrying members). But God called them, and at that point childless, to walk toward a future, where they would have descendants as “numerous as the stars in the heavens, and the grains of sand on the seashore.”
And that sounded ludicrous! Sarah was beyond childbearing years. But, God made a promise that if they walked in faith with God, God would bless them, and all the families of the earth would be blessed by their faithfulness. Now, to modern people, to read this kind of a promise sounds as ludicrous as it did to Abraham and Sarah…….at the point of their greatest despair. There was a time when three angels showed up at their encampment, and said to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah would bear a son in the spring. It was a moment, when after almost 25 years of walking with God and trying to conceive a child that this happened: 9They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10The LORD said, “I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” Genesis 18:9 through Genesis 18:15 (RSV)
So Sarah laughed, not because she was happy, but because of disbelief. Her faith had been pushed to the breaking point. But, as Genesis tells us, in the spring, she did give birth to Isaac, whose name means “laughter.”
Faith requires action. There is a senior citizen in our congregation, who meets to pray with myself and my wife on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. One of the things I have learned from her is that she deeply believes that God will “guide us and direct us.” And if that is true, then faith is acting on that guiding and directing.
Faith requires action. And the result of our faith guided actions may very well impact the world in the same way that Abraham and Sarah’s actions made such a huge impact. The belief that there is one God who “guides and directs,” is the result of two senior citizens who believed in God and who “faithed.” I know that using the word “faith” in this way sounds weird. But, Abraham and Sarah “faithed.” And the result was that our world has been improved in many ways by their belief in one God, and their faithful actions.
Maybe we need to ask ourselves the questions, “How is God guiding and directing us?”, and “How is God inviting us to faithful action?
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