The grand life of faith

The New Inter-national Version of the Bible defines faith as being sure of what you hope for, and being certain of what you do not see. There are three important words in this definition which require explanation: hope, unseen and sure/certain. Faith is not hope that is why hope is just a part of the definition of faith. Generally biblical hope is not mere wishful thinking. It is a confident assurance of some future good based on the promises of God.
For instance Ch-ristians can hope for resurrection and crowning in heaven at the close of the age.
Faith is now while hope is futuristic. But when used in defining faith hope refers to a promise or a present accomplished fact you can claim now; a desire, a goal or target to aim your faith at.
Faith is not an end but a means to the end, and the end is hope. Thus without hope or a target faith will not score. Have you not heard many a believer say they have all the faith in the world and yet have achieved nothing? They do not have faith. They have wishes.
Anything you desire to achieve as a goal in life is your hope but you need to apply the energy of faith to achieve it.  Possible targeted goals in life include perfect health, adequate daily provisions, long life, breaking evil habits, marriage, financial ind-ependence, starting, growing and expanding business, forging rewarding and healthy relationships, safe travels, peaceful sleep, and so on. You may ask, “But it seems you mean that everything in life needs faith.”
Thank goodness, you finally got it.
Faith is not something that you need when you want some specific things or to do great things only it is a way of life.
It is written that the just or the righteous shall live by faith (see Hab 2:4, Rom1:17, Gal 3:11 and Heb 10:38.)
However, once you realise your goal you no longer need faith for faith only deals with the invisible. Hope that is seen is not a goal.
This gets us to the second word; unseen.
Faith deals with the unseen existing spiritual realities. Spiritual things are as real as natural things in fact all material things come from the unseen spiritual things.
The two great spiritual realities are God and His word but faith is not limited to these only.
Electricity and the law of gravity are not visible but they are so real.
Faith is believing that the unseen God and the invisible electricity do exist and are so real that we need to take them into account in our daily conscious operations.
Thus, faith is accepting that want you hope for may be unseen but does exist and will definitely manifest in this world of bolts and nuts. You might be sick now but faith is accepting God’s estimate of your health as true.
His estimate is that by the stripes of Jesus you were healed. Though you do not see or feel perfect health in your body you must believe that you are healed and then resist the sickness you see.
But how can you be sure or certain that you will have perfect health? Because it is written as a statement of fact in the word of God that you are healed. It is not visible but it is a truth recoded in the word of God.
So certainty or sureness concerning whether your unseen hope will actually materialise when you believe for it is based on the faithfulness and changelessness of God who stated the invisible facts.
You can be sure your desire will come to pass if only the object of your faith is not subject to change. And God is the ultimate object of faith.

– For prayer and counseling call 011-877180 or e-mail: mairos78@yahoo.co.uk