When I get up in the middle of the dark night to use the restroom, I grope around like an unsighted person, reaching out to touch the walls and pieces of furniture, making my way to the bathroom I assume by faith is still there. I then close the door, which makes it darker still, to avoid waking my sleeping husband. Sleepily, I swipe the wall until the light switch, I depend on to work, can be found. Once flipped, the blinding light appears so the pressing business can be accomplished. A couple of hours later, I go through this process all over again. I could blame this on age, but this has been going on since I was a kid. Even in sleep, I’m an active participant in life. I must keep moving. By faith in knowing where I’m going, I get to where I need to be.
Do you know where you are going?
Do you know the means to get there?
Who or what gives you the faith to continue the journey?
The following essay defines our faith in God through the active faith examples of others. It outlines the stories of trust in the journey with Him, along with their active participation of real, obvious, doing it without thinking, faith each day in God who they cannot see but believe. We learn that our faith defines our intimate, growing relationship with God. So, friends, let’s get a “handle” on the kind of faith in God shown here that grows so strong we don’t need to see Him to believe Him. We are exponentially blessed if we do. How do I know? God’s Word tells me so. While still on earth, Jesus told Thomas and the other disciples, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Friends, that’s us!
HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH
Hebrews 11, The Message
Faith in What We Don’t See
1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.
4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.
5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.
11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.
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13-16 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
17-19 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, “Your descendants shall come from Isaac.” Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.
20 By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.
21 By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn, blessing them with God’s blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.
22 By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.
23 By an act of faith, Moses’ parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child’s beauty, and they braved the king’s decree.
24-28 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king’s blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going. By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn’t touch them.
29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.
30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.
31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.
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32-38 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
39-40 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.
Lord,
I can only sing praises to you for leading me through good times and bad with a faith that continues to grow from the inside out and outside in. And when I falter in my faith YOU are faithful to pick me up and set me right again! Thank you for trials that tested my faith with a “knowing” that you were there. Thank you for parting the red seas of my life as I stepped into the waters that overwhelmed at first. Thank you for hope, eternal joy, love, mercy and grace that are essential to a strong, forever, active, growing faith in You. You are God. I am not. I will follow You. Only You.
Active Faith truly is our victory! The battle for our faith is real, but greater are You in me than he that is in this world! Evil may try, but he cannot win. I know where I’m going! I’m going with You, always and forever.
In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!
Waymaker
You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, working in this place
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, working in this place
I worship You, I worship You
And we say waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are, oh
You are here, touching every heart
I worship You, I worship You, I lift my hands
You are here, healing every heart (and we workship You)
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, mending every heart
I worship You, I worship You (I love to worship You)
You are here Lord, turning lives around
I worship You, I worship You
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are
Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (I said)
Even when I don’t see it, You’re working
Even when I can’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working
Even when I can’t see it, You’re working
Even when I can’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working
He never stops working, no
Our God is at work with us here
Our God is a healer, He’s a comforter
Waymaker, miracle-worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (we know, we know)
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (ooh)
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are…
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Osinachi Kalu Okoro
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 