Faith is the assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen. Hebrews 11:1 (VOICE)
In the Bible, Jesus tells people that their faith has saved them. In the story of the woman who anointed Jesus feet, he tells her that her faith has liberated her. (Luke 7:50 VOICE)
We look at the level in which we believe something and we call that faith. And it is but what happens when what we are believing isn’t happening? What happens when God isn’t showing up the way we want him to? Do we still have faith?
Do we still believe that God is in the middle of it when it gets really, really hard? Do we stretch our faith to believe that no matter what we see happening around us, God is in control of it and it will be better than what we think or want? Do we have faith even if we never, ever see what we are praying for come to pass?
Can I challenge us a little? Do you think God wants to grow our faith? Do you think things happen to stretch us so that faith truly becomes about what we cannot comprehend? Faith is more than what we can see right now. It’s beyond that; it is believing in things that are so far out of our reach that we can’t imagine it.
And more importantly, faith is about who we believe in. Everything else is non-consequential. You see, there will always be trials and pain. But beyond that, there is Jesus. And he loves us. If we grab hold of Jesus and hold on to what we know about him no matter what is happening, that is faith. It is the kind of faith that says “I don’t know why things are going this way but, I know you. I trust you. And I will believe in your goodness more than I believe in my circumstances.”
And that is where the liberation comes in.