1/15/15 Hebrews 11:1

1Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1)

Thoughts: Faith is confidence- it is a trust that allows us to act.  It brings us confidence in God and indirectly confidence in our faith or tie to Him.
Faith is confidence in what we hope for.  Faith is not confidence in what we have, or confidence in what we fear.  It is placing our confidence in our hopes.  Our hope is found in God and our confidence remains in Him and not in ourselves alone or in what we fear.  In fact, faith helps us fight fear with hope for it is confidence in our hope and not giving into our fears.
Faith is assurance in what we do not see.  The difference between faith and sight is that faith allows us to rest our confidence and find peace in what we do not see.  We do not have to see and understand or experience everything in order to have confidence or assurance in something.  I do not have to have seen Napolean or his original manuscripts or his original uniform to believe he was a real person and he really did the basics of what people said he did..  I do not have to pull my brakes every time I get into the car to make sure they are working.  i do not have to see NASA;s charts and calculations in order to believe the sun will come up tomorrow.
    But faith gives us confidence and assurance to move forward with our lives.  Faith enables us to not get stuck in the past or simply determined by our gene pool or environment.  Faith empowers the human spirit to do more.
    The ancients were commended for their faith.  Perhaps they understood a lot less about how the world works today.  But they knew more about the why- and the purpose of the world and the who.  Ironically, the more we are addicted to having to understand everything, the less we are likely to make use of the gift of faith given to us.  Faith involves understanding, but it is not simply understanding.  The ancients may not have understood things- but they understood the need to have faith in God -which many today cannot even imagine.  

Prayer: Help me believe in order to understand. Help me to find my confidence and assurance in you, Lord.