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 1 of our Bible reading 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 we 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 Bible reading 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.

Let us go back to the Bible reading 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 that my faith in You will grow and I will make time to read the Bible regularly so that I would know more about You! In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.