What is faith?
If you were forced to write down the definition of faith on a piece of paper, what would you write?
Let’s complicate this a bit further…
Is faith a verb? Sometimes.
Faith in God encourages me to live a certain way and to adopt certain behaviors. I seek to live faithfully.
Is faith a noun? Sometimes.
Faith is something I choose to believe. I have faith in my life.
Ok— enough questions about faith. This is enough to get us wondering about the complexity of a seemingly simple word— faith.
This past Sunday Pastor Dana connected faith to gratitude (Did you miss the sermon? Check it out at https://www.unitypres.org/connect/service-video-archives/). This Sunday we will continue to explore the concept of faith in the Bible.
For now, I want us to read the definition given by the author of Hebrews—
Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
-Hebrews 11:1
Faith is described as confidence and assurance.
It is easy to be confident about things I can see. I am confident that my phone is on the table in front of me. What is the source of my confidence? I can see my phone right now as it sits on the table in front of me.
How can I be confident in something I cannot see?
Simply put— that is faith.
How can I be confident in something that has not yet happened, and I believe it only in hope?
Faith!
For example, I am confident that God exists.
I cannot see God in the same way I can see my phone. So what is the source of my confidence?
Faith.
When we live by faith, we live with confidence that God is at work in our world, behind the scenes, in almost imperceptible ways.
Or as Paul puts it— we live by faith, not by sight.
Is the way you are living today guided more by sight or by faith?
This is a question we will dig more deeply into on Sunday.
Also, we hope to collect all of our Estimate of Giving cards by this Sunday. Thank you to all who have already turned one in. If you haven’t yet had a chance, please bring it with you on Sunday or fill it out at https://www.unitypres.org/estimated-giving/.
See you on Sunday!
-Pastor David
