05/27/2026
Dear Saints,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) This familiar verse is not so much a definition of faith as it is a description of how it works. When we trust God and depend on his Word being true, we begin to experience the unseen reality of the spiritual world we live in. This world is, in a sense, more real than the physical world we can see, touch, hear, and feel with our natural senses as much as it existed before the creation of the world we call reality. The exercise of faith provides us access into this unseen reality and allows us to interact with our God, who is a Spirit.
The writer of Hebrews goes on to list out the various “heroes of faith” mentioned in the scriptures such as Able, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham and refers to the great “cloud of witnesses” that have gone on before us in faith. Among those are not only the believers who won great victories and were delivered by faith, but also those who suffered great tragedies and were martyred for their faith. Regardless of the earthly outcome of their faith, all who believe have access into the amazing grace of God in which they stand. They live in grace and die in grace.
The lifestyle of grace and truth is a supernatural lifestyle that begins in faith, continues in hope, and is characterized by love for others. As the Apostle Paul reminds us in that great chapter on love, “Now abides faith, hope, and love” (1Corinthians 13); the greatest is love but the first is faith. When we trust God and his Word we enter into this lifestyle of grace and truth as opposed to the natural lifestyle of law and lies. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for it produces a “joyful and confident expectation about our own future” (hope) that allows us to quit thinking only of ourselves and actually love others. In this way our faith “continually works itself out in love” (Galatians 5:6).
Although we know that “the just shall live by faith” we don’t always know what we are to trust in. We have trusted Jesus as our personal savior by believing that he died for our sins on the cross, but how do we actually live our daily lives by faith? In this new lifestyle of grace and truth we have two great facts of God’s Word we can trust in daily. First, we can depend on who God says he has made us to be in Christ (our new identity); and second, we can depend on what the indwelling Spirit of God is leading us to do to love others today.
As to our faith in our new identity, we all have a set of personal needs for love and respect that must be met on a daily basis for us to have the “hope of righteousness” or simply a real sense of personal worth. Trusting what God says he has made us to be as brand-new persons in Christ we can begin to experience those needs being met in us. Rather than believing, “I will be worthy if…” we can actually start believing, “I am worthy because of all that God has made me to be in Christ Jesus”. This radical change in our thinking and daily “self-talk” is what the Bible refers to as repentance and requires the exercise of faith to be genuine and meaningful.
Regarding the personal leadership of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can trust God to lead, teach, remind, and comfort us daily through his Spirit. Because most of the decisions of our lives involve “doubtful issues” (things about which the Bible says nothing), we need the personal leadership of the Spirit to guide us daily. How are we going to spend our time, energy, and money each day? Where do we go and what do we say to others each day? How do we raise our children and relate to our families? These and a host of other questions can only be answered by the personal direction of the indwelling Spirit of God. Our daily faith in his leadership gives us hope so that we can truly love others like Christ.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Trust Him.
John
