What Is Faith?

by Elizabeth Stewart

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

When our second granddaughter, (who will be twelve next month!), was little she loved it when I read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey to her. 

One day that same granddaughter had a playdate with a new little friend named Nora who looked a bit like the illustrations of Sal in the book we'd been reading. My daughter heard my granddaughter calling Nora “Sal”.  She corrected her and told her that her new friend’s name was Nora, whereupon my granddaughter, who had decided that if her friend looked like Sal then her name must be Sal, insisted on continuing to call her little friend Sal.

Faith is not so mysterious and hard to grasp as we make it. Hebrews 11:6 helps us to define it in a simple way that we can grasp and hold on to.  Faith is simply believing God is Who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.

Believe God is Who He says He is. My granddaughter insisted that her little friend, Nora, was actually a little girl named Sal based on a book she and I had read together. Similarly, it is very possible for us to mix the God of the Bible up with who we think God is based on our own experiences and feelings as well as things we've read, seen, or been taught that may or may not line up with truth. We may even have bits and pieces of the truth of God's Word mixed in with our other concepts and ideas of god. The problem is that when the one true God doesn’t perform the way we think He should, based on our own misunderstandings of His character, then our faith crumbles because our expectations of God were not based on the truth of Who He is. If our god concepts do not line up with Who God really is, the God self-defined by the Holy Spirit in the Bible, then he isn’t God at all. From Genesis to Revelation, there is enough revealed about God's character and ways in His Word to keep us continually seeking to know Him in all of His greatness and wonder for all of our days on this earth.

Believe that He will do what He says He will do. Sometimes we grasp onto good words that don't line up with the truth of God's Word. Again, they may be things we’ve been told or taught or just our own thoughts and our own understanding. The result is that we end up "standing on the promises" that may not be things God promised at all. We may be leaning on things we want God to do instead of on the things He has said He will do. Then, when our word doesn't come to pass our faith rocks and reels and comes tumbling down. A true word or promise that God will do this or that will never contradict what God has said He will do in His Word. We can stand in confidence on what God Himself says in the Bible  that He will do, (or not do, such as, “I will never, never, never leave you or forsake you.” Hallelujah!) There is enough revelation in His Word about what He says He will do to keep us standing on His promises as long as we live.

God wants us to know Him personally based on the truth He has revealed to us about Himself in His Word. He wants us to learn His ways and to be confident that He does what He says He will do. Of course, because He is God and knows better than we do, He does it in His timing and His way, not always in ours! That is when our faith in His goodness, love and care for us gets tested. But the longer we journey with Him, the more we come to know that our Father God really does know what is best and that He is, indeed, so very good.

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