“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Having been raised in the Pentecostal church as a disciple of Christ under the teachings of the apostles I have read and heard this particular passage of scripture taught and preached exhaustively. I myself have had the pleasure to teach and preach from this text of numerous occasions and found myself having to teach from it again recently, however this time the Lord showed me something completely different. I asked the students in the combined Sunday school class to tell me what stood out to them about this particular passage, what resonated with them. As you can image a number of people commented on the second half of the passage the references sight. As I have many times before I always think about faith as a condition of not being able to see or perceive my deliverance. Faith is product of the invisible; “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” (Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:15) Faith exists beyond our comprehension, which is to say beyond our visual perception and many times beyond our ability to understand the workings of our Lord. Yet on this particular day the Lord drew my attention to the first half of the verse and caused me to examine closer the words that have always been there that I so often over look; “the substance of things hoped for…” There it was, Hope, as simply and as plainly as it has been for generations, hope. Faith cannot exist without hope. As fundamental as invisibility is to faith so is hope. We must have something to hope for in order for faith to be present. “And where is now my hope as for my hope, who shall see it? Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience and experience, hope.” (Job 17:15 and Romans 5:3-4) If we were able to supply our own needs if we were able to serve as the source of our own fulfillment, if we never had a need or desire beyond our own scope than there would be no need for us to hope for anything and therefore no need for faith. Faith is the result of our hope coupling with a circumstance for which we cannot resolve of our own accord.
We are more than conquerors today because we have an assurance that as long as we have cause to hope we have fuel for faith. Paul wrote to the church in Rome to glorify in tribulation because that tribulation will ultimately work its way into hope. As a result faith is born when the impossible must be made possible for us. “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)
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