DECEMBER 23, Hebrews 11:1-3

Have you seen God? None of us have seen Him, and yet we believe in Him – that is faith. And that is how verse one of our text defines faith – “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The idea is– although we do not see God,we place our hope and trust in Him. That is faith.

Do we believe in things we do not see? Of course, all of us do. We do not see air, but we know there is air. We do not see “sounds” but hear them. You have not met your grandfather’s grandfather, but you know there was such a man! Why? Because the results of your grandfather’s grandfather is seen in him having descendants, one of whom is you! In perhaps the same way, we see the results of God’s goodness and kindness, and so we know that He exists.

More specifically, verse 3 of our text tells us to consider the creation of the world. Before God created the heavens and the earth, what we now see, feel, and sense around us did not exist. God created everything in 6 days through the amazing power of His spoken word. That is so remarkable and this ability to create out of nothing belongs only to God! As Christians, it is so important to have faith in God. One way to show we have faith in God is to have faith in His Word – the Bible. If we say we have faith in the Bible – we are expected to be faithful to read the Bible everyday so that we may know more of God and more of what He wants us to do.

Let us go back to the text and read verse 2 – For by it the elders obtained a good report. What does this mean? Well, it just reminds us that the elders, those great men of the faith that we read about in the Bible, were commended for having faith in God. And we are to follow their good example in having faith in God!

Thought: May I have faith!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You so much for creating the world! I pray for more faith in You and that I’d be able to read the Bible more regularly so that I’d know more about You! In Jesus’ wonderful name, Amen.