By Faith series : Hebrews 11:1-3

“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭CSB‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/1713/heb.11.1-3.CSB

Faith is not a blind faith, Faith is truth reasoned out by evidence. This is not to say truth is reasoned by evidence, it is the definition of faith that I am describing, it is true to to say truth is discovered not invented, truth is transcultural, truth is unchanging, and all truths are absolute. Nobody lives on definitive proof; all things involve faith to some level, or we would never progress. Again, this is not to say truth was formed by society to progress, it exists independent to societal beliefs. we cant definitively prove who made our cars didn’t do so with malicious intent yet we still drive, we can’t definitively prove George Washington was our first president, yet we teach that as truth in school, because the historical evidence reasonably proves he was, we can’t definitively prove our wife loves us, yet we live like we can, we do this because we are able to reason based on evidence what the truth really is, we can understand and rationally think and we understand fallacies and are able to decipher what is true or false. Humans may affect how others feel about the truth but that does not mean it is no longer true. if everyone

suddenly stopped believing in gravity due to protests, we wouldn’t suddenly start floating up in space, gravity would still exist. The complexity of reality gives no threat to truth being absolute, we do not know everything yet, so how does that prove that absolute truth does not exist? since earth was formed gravity has existed, we lived for hundreds of thousands of years without understanding it fully, but it always existed. at all times in all places for all people. Some things can be relative such as taste or music preferences, but things that are relative are not true. It is not true that chocolate is better than vanilla, but it is true that they can appropriately both be described as flavors. To say all truth is relative is a logical fallacy, It would have to be true that all truth is relative which is self-defeating.
Faith, rather than being something that is ultimately dependent on us, comes to us on God’s own initiative, and via God’s Word, it inspires a hopeful response to God’s promises. This trusting response to God makes “visible” — through the lives of the assembly of believers — what would otherwise be “invisible.” In other words, someone who

believes God’s promises is God’s own testimony to the new creation that is bursting into our “everyday” visible reality . There is an abundance of evidence for the resurrection. The Greek term for ‘hoped-for’ is ἐλπιζομέvων. This is from ἐλπίς, which means to expect, anticipate, and welcome. It is not a wishy-washy hope like “I hope we have a mild winter this year” or “I hope the Browns win the Super Bowl someday”. It is discussing a solid expectation based on trust. There’s also the assumption that what can’t be seen is unreal, as if it’s a foolish fantasy. The fact that you are thinking about what I’ve said here right now proves that we all have faith in the invisible. the actual thought about football doesn’t have size, shape or location. It doesn’t even make sense to say “how big was that thought?” or “how heavy was it?”. Your thoughts don’t have spatial geometrical properties, but your brain states do, so it seems like they’re not the same thing, and even thinking of my example before gravity is unseen. We can see the affects of gravity but we can’t actually see gravity itself.
The word υποστασις, which we translate substance, signifies subsistence, that which becomes a foundation for another thing to stand

on. And ελεγχος signifies such a conviction as is produced in the mind by the demonstration of a problem, after which demonstration no doubt can remain, because we see from it that the thing is; that it cannot but be; and that it cannot be otherwise than as it is, and is proved to be.
The things hoped for are God’s peace and approval, as well as the benefits that would prepare the soul for the kingdom of heaven. A penitent desires the forgiveness of his sins and the favor of his God; trust in Christ grants him this forgiveness, and therefore faith enjoys what he desired. When this is received, a man has complete certainty of the truth
and actuality of all these blessings, which, though unseen by the eye, are felt by the heart; and the man has no more doubt of God’s approval and his own free forgiveness than he has of his own existence.In a broad sense, the things looked for include the resurrection of the body, the new heavens and the new earth, the introduction of believers into the
heavenly country, and the possession of eternal glory.
God created the world, and we weren’t there to see it, but we trust the power of the word of God. We know and understand his word is powerful based on much evidence. You see, faith means trusting in the

authority of what God has said based on the plentiful evidence God has given us, Faith declares, “I trust in God.” He says something. I have faith in him. When we experience hardship, misfortune, and pain, it is precisely this aspect of faith that we require, since it becomes
challenging to accept that God is who He claims to be at those times. We are prone to doubt God’s message when our stress levels rise. However, faith presses in to rely on God rather than looking for a reason to stop believing in Him. It is not for us to supply the evidence but to observe the evidence, It is not up to us to get it right in God, it is up to God to get it right in us. This does not mean to not work with the Lord and walk
with the spirit,we must always do our best at this, it means your mistakes do not change or affect His plan. Too many believers are waiting for everything to be lined up, for their world to make perfect sense before they move out in obedience to God. But if you are waiting to be strong
enough, waiting for all the resources, waiting for every question to be answered, you’ll be waiting for a long time, if you wait to long God will
still bring you where you need to be it may just be best to have faith at the start, like Jonah who disobeyed and stalled his own mission making

his own life harder, jonah never stalled or affected the Lords plan. It would likely of been easier for jonah if he had faith instead of fear from the start, this caused him to falsley flee from God’s plan and ended up in an unimaginable situation, where he most likely believed he would rot
inside of a fish.
We have many gifts from God, when we feel this fear we have the word of God to turn to for encouraging truth, We will have the Spirit of God to guide us to the Lords will, and we have Jesus as an example of what it looks like to perfectly live according to the will of God. We also have
the ability to share and hear the testimony of God in their life. All of which gives faith and hope. Let us ourselves continue to always promote faith and hope, for faith in Jesus Christ is the way to salvation, and because we have salvation, we are able to have unbreakable hope, and because we have unbreakable hope, we are able to have a joy that surpasses understanding, and so out of love we must always share the truth of Jesus Christ.