There are a lot of answers to this question. According to Paul in Hebrews 11:1 “…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I have heard this verse all my life. I know that in essence faith sees and knows what the human eye does not. Because I have grown up in faith it is something I have a hard time explaining in simple terms, honestly I have a hard time understanding it in simple terms. It sort of takes faith to understand faith.
I know it may seem I am not making sense, today. But that is sort of my point. It is hard to know if you are walking in faith when struggling through a circumstance. The thoughts of doubt. The voices of “reason” both externally and internally all scream at you. Then you become frustrated that you are now doubting again. Oh what a game that is played. I am not even sure how much of the game involves the attack of the enemy, and how much is our own doing. Still battling that one out as well.
This past week, a conversation turned into counseling between me and two other ladies. All three of us facing our own struggles and walking out even trying to understand the “whys” of our circumstances. You know “Why does God do it this way?”, “Why does God allow this to happen?”. The “whys” that catapult us into a spiral of more questions unanswered, and even more frustrated than before. Then one of them, Dr. Beth, made a profound statement. (I must say she made many, but this one really stuck with me) She said “Faith is not believing God for something, it is believing God through something”
It is not about never having a thought of doubt. See I may wonder why I have not had the breakthrough in my life. I may have doubts about the “whens” and “hows” and “whys”, but I never doubt the “who”. Faith is that no matter what my circumstances are God is still who He says He is. He is still the God of more than enough, He is still my provider, He is still the God of healing, He is still the God of life and life more abundantly, He is still the God who fulfills His promises, He is still all that I need, no matter what my circumstances tell me. Now apply this to Hebrews 11:1, Faith believes in God even when circumstances tell us otherwise.
I do the statement that Dr. Beth says ” it is believing God through something.” I never really thought about it that why. Food for thought.
I love the quote: Faith is not believing God for something, it is believing God through something. Its absolutely beautiful. I am going through some struggles myself and your post was timely and made a lot of sense to me.
Sandy