11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 KJV
What is evidence? More importantly, what is evidence of things not seen?
Plenty of Evidence
Jesus tells us to look at the evidence. He shows us signs and wonders in His ministry and in the lives of believers over two millenium since He returned to the Father in Heaven.
His miraculous work has been felt throughout the world.
Miracles Abound
We have read in the Bible of the lame healed, the blind given sight, the dead raised, and help and joy given to the emotionally bankrupt over and over.
Sickness has been turned to health, and hopelessness has been turned to rapture. It is all because of God and His gift of Jesus Christ.
There is the certainty, yes certainty, that we can put our faith in God because we have the recorded evidence of what God has done. He parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, drove back the enemy and sent manna in the wilderness. Jesus touched multitudes and healing came. He died in our place and when we believe and confess Him, God forgives and our sins are gone. We have seen hardened sinners turned to saints. Evidence is there.
Faith When We Cannot See
However, our verse today is reminding us of the need to have faith in that which we cannot see. We are not putting our faith into an unreliable, unknown stranger.
If we have received Christ, we KNOW Him.
We feel Him with us.
We experience His Presence every day.
Christ With Us
Christ walks with us, lives with us, and sits beside us.
I do not live without Him for a moment. You can have Him with you too.
God will put His Holy Spirit of love into your life and therein you will find the Comforter and Guide of your life.
Do I see Him with my physical eyes? No. Neither do I see the air I breathe, nor the cells at work within my body.
Yet God is closer and more real, and infinity more reliable than anything in the physical realm within your touch.
Faith
Your faith is also something that cannot be felt nor seen physically. One can, however, put it to work and it will accomplish things that can be seen physically. Yet faith is not something that you can bottle and store.
Our faith is put in God. We give it in spirit, and God, Who is Spirit, receives it.
Faith in the God we know and faith in the things we have seen Him do propels us to have faith in that which we trust Him to do.
We have faith in the hope He holds before us because He has proven Himself to be trustworthy in the past.
Trusting
You trust the chair to hold your weight today because it did yesterday. You trust the bus driver to get you to the destination because the bus driver has traveled that route for years. God has NEVER failed us throughout history. His prophecies are 100 percent accurate. He is unfailing. No one on earth has that to his credit. God alone deserves our faith and trust.
Faith, is indeed, the substance of that which we have hope in because we know that God is reliable. He has NOT EVER failed us. His answer might have been no, or wait awhile, but an answer always came from our listening God.
We can trust Him for the future that we cannot see. He has never let us down in the past. He never will.