Monday, January 3
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
—Hebrews 11:1
If I could prove all the claims about Jesus using a computer, I would not need faith. If you could bring God into your living room, in the flesh, so that all your guests could see Him and know that He is God—the Creator—none of you would need faith. As Paul says so eloquently, “faith is…the conviction of things not seen.” That is why we need faith in order to believe.
God set things up so that we would be required to have faith, so that we would be forced to choose between believing only what we can see, touch and feel, on the one hand, and believing in those hoped-for heavenly good things that we will never be able to prove except by the strength of our spirit.
My mother used to say that old age isn’t for sissies. I have come to believe—through loss and pain—that life at any point isn’t for sissies. It is the suffering of this life that makes faith in a loving God such a “wonder-full” strength. It can overcome the worst that life can bring.
It is not an easy overcoming, yet a full sense of the presence of God can get us through the worst moments in life. That doesn’t mean we don’t hurt, or that we are not afraid, but hanging on to our Jesus for dear life can bring us exactly that—dear life, even in the midst of death.
God is always right there for us—for each of us. Some of us are able to see Him because we believe He is there, we believe He IS. Those without faith cannot see Him. They can't feel his presence. They feel alone.
But it is never too late. God only awaits our desire to believe. To have hope fulfilled. That is faith—to have hope in the midst of a broken world. May it be ours today and always.
Good and gracious God, give me the hope in my heart that brings the strength of faith to my life. Amen.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2007.
