The Substance of Things Hoped For
Five letters. Five little letters. If you are into Wordle, you know those five letters can lead to a multiple of answers, only one of which will be the correct one. The five-letter word I am talking about here is FAITH.
It seems like a small thing. It seems like a no-brainer for the professing Christian. It seems like an absolute for the sanctified believer. But it’s not always so simple, and it’s not always so small. Faith.
In a conversation, a woman was telling me how she had advised a fearful friend that if she exercised enough faith (in the saving God — not in her ability to believe), she could beat down her fears and apprehensions. She told her it was unnecessary to live with vague fears and premonitions and apprehensions, because they were of the evil one and not intended for believers. Right or wrong, good advice or flimsy, look at the advice from the view of the one receiving the admonition: the one who must continually work to have, lean toward, and pursue faith. For some, it is not an easy acquisition.
I found some notes of a sermon I heard at Daybreak Community Church, in Lexington, KY, a few years back. The pastor had made this observation:
““You are ill. You go to your family doctor, who sends you to a specialist. You do not know this specialist. You have never seen him before, and, furthermore, you can’t even pronounce his name.
He tells you something you know nothing about and gives you a prescription that you can’t read for a sophisticated chemical compound that you don’t understand.
You take that prescription to a pharmacist you do not know, and whose last name does not even appear on his name tag. He gives you a medicine that you know absolutely nothing about and tells you how to use it. When you get home, without questioning, you take it as prescribed.
”That’s Faith.””
Our Ladies’ Bible Study this morning was entitled, “Joy in Affliction”. Where is your faith in time of affliction Let alone joy? This study is based on the joy-filled book of Philippians, but when you talk of joy in affliction, it must always come back to faith. And faith is the subject of Hebrews 11, whose writer penned:
““Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.””
Why not take a little time to read the short book of Philippians and the long chapter of Hebrews 11? Can you exercise faith in your affliction? Perhaps then you can also find joy in your faith. How’s that working for you?
Have a blessed May!
Happy Mother’s Day!