Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)
“Oh no, WATER!”
If ever we’ve seen tour professionals seized by fear and head-dropping disappointment, it has been the past three weeks on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing. With water closely guarding fairways and greens, excellent players whose minds should not be worried about water are struggling to keep their golf balls on dry land. Crazy!
You may not play golf on a course with so much water, but you know what a lack of confidence feels like. It comes when you’re standing over a six-foot putt and you have no idea what the line is. It comes when you’re buried in the bunker and the lip towers above you. It comes when you’ve hit one drive left, the next drive right, and now you’re looking at a tee shot with OB on both sides. It’s hard to have faith in situations like these!
But is this the kind of faith the writer of Hebrews was talking about? If we have confidence on the golf course, does this mean we have the spiritual gift of faith?
Certainly confidence is part of the equation. But biblical faith is a step beyond confidence, that belief that you can get the job done. The definition of faith that we find in Hebrews 11 hinges on the word assurance. Assurance means you can count on it—even when you cannot see it. An assurance like that does not come from looking to yourself; it comes from looking to God.
The notable people of faith shown to us in Hebrews 11 looked to God when there was nothing else to see.
Noah built the ark when there was no rain on the horizon.
Abraham awaited a child though his wife was too old to get pregnant.
Joseph held onto God all the time he was held in Pharaoh’s prison.
Moses led the people to a land promised but not yet delivered.
David stood taller than the giant who stood before him.
The only way we can have assurance in what we do not see is to know and trust God. He is the one who holds our future, though it may be invisible to us.
The people of Hebrews are not all that unusual. I have experienced and heard too many stories like we read of in the Bible, when we took a step of faith and God came through in ways we would never have anticipated. It only happened because of God. I have seen people healed from deadly illnesses, and seen relationships going sideways that were healed because we prayed in faith and God repaired the brokenness. He is answering prayers still today.
Do you want to add a story of your own? Take your needs to God, the needs for which you can see no solution. Pray boldly, being honest with God even if you are not “feeling” full of faith. Then trust in him, that he will do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
—
Dereck Wong
March 18, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.