Hebrews 11: True Faith

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

People talk about faith a lot, yet few understand how to define it. Faith needs clarity for us to live it. The writer of Hebrews knew this and provided ample illustrations in a chapter often called “The Hall of Faith.” But before the writer describes how faith looks, he defines what faith is.

First, faith is “confidence in what we hope for.” We believe in something and we do so with confidence. This is the signature mark of faith. Second, faith is “assurance about what we do not see.” Faith is not about what we have in front of our eyes, but on what lies beyond in the unseen. The examples given regarding Abraham, David, and many others are all based on the foundation that these individuals lived based on something unseen yet extremely powerful.

Faith is like that. We are commended, as the ancients were, when we follow the teachings of Christ even when we do not see the outcome of those decisions in our own lifetime or fully understand the reasons behind the belief. This is true faith.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.