“Three things will last forever – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) I have written many times about love and I wrote about hope in my previous blog post. The Apostle Paul tells us that the greatest of the three is love; but there is a reason he listed faith first. If you want to be filled with hope and love, you must first put your faith in God through Jesus Christ. Without that faith our hope and attempts at love are in vain.
The writer of Hebrews begins the eleventh chapter with this definition of faith, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for, it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Then he lists many of those in the Old Testament who did great things by faith in God’s promise to them. That entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called the “Faith Hall of Fame” .Those listed are surely heroes of faith, but each and every person who put their faith in the God of creation and His promises has their own success story.
Those people of old had to put their faith in the future God promised. He fulfilled His promise to them when He sent His Son as a perfect sacrifice for their sins and ours. They rested their faith on the future. We rest our faith on what God has already done. We weren’t there to see it happen, but we rest our faith on the solid evidence of God’s word and the confirmation of His Holy Spirit within us.
Everyone has faith in something or someone. Is all faith good? Of course not! Many people of old put their faith in idols and false gods that had no power to save them. Some of them put their faith in kings and leaders. Others put their faith in material wealth or good works. Come to think about it, things haven’t really changed that much have they? People are still putting their faith in those things and more instead of in God. I have friends who claim to be atheists; they put their faith in their own ability. There are others today who put their faith in science, politics, education and even religious leaders instead of in God. It boils down to who or what we put our faith in. The term Christian has been so demonized by some in our society to the point that many Christians call themselves believers instead. I tried that for a short time, but came back to calling myself a Christian because I want everyone to know Who I believe in; whether they like it or not.
Let your faith rest on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, It is through Him that we have the Holy Spirit within us and direct access to our heavenly Father in prayer. When you put your faith in him, you have God’s promise of hope and love.
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