The word “Faith” can be called Trust, Confidence, belief, hope and more.. Cambridge definition of faith is –“ to complete trust or confidence in someone or something. “
Similarly, we have a Biblical definition of Faith
'Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ' Hebrews 11:1
The worldly definition and Biblical definition is completely opposite, so as children of God how should we approach Faith in our lives, We learn a great deal from our Ancestors on how to deal with faith and how we should apply. This post explains God’s teaching from Abraham’s life and how we can apply that to our life.
Let’s understand the Bible definition - Hebrews 11:1 of Faith, as it has three parts to this
Confidence - Just as our physical eyesight, is the sense that gives us evidence of the material world, faith is the “sense” that gives us evidence of the invisible, spiritual world. That thru God it is possible.
Hope - Thru Christ that you can get that feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.
Assurance - Assurance about what you do not see, it’s about what you don’t have or do not possess.
Worldly definition of Faith has only one part – just to trust on something or someone, Godly Faith has three parts.
Before we see how we can apply faith in Action, Let’s look at Abraham story on how he applied Faith in his life and what we should learn to make Faith in Action in our life.
Abraham faith story has two parts, Story of Isaac’s birth and Abraham testing and his blessing
Story of Isaac’s Birth
Note - I have collated all that’s required for this post from Multiple chapters of Genesis below to explain short, if you need to do a detailed reading, read from Genesis 17 to 22
God Appearing to Abraham and giving him the promise - 'God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ' Genesis 17:15-17
God appearing to Sarah and giving her the promise - 'Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” Genesis 18:11-15
Birth of Isaac - 'Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” ' Genesis 21:1-7
Lessons we can learn from Isaacs birth
Promise from God
Abraham was 100 Yrs. old and Sarah was 90 Yrs. Old - it was impossible to have a child at this age.
God promises both of them separately in spite of knowing their old age where things are not possible humanly.
Un-Belief reaction
1st reaction was both laughed in unbelief.
Abraham - he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?
Sarah - So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
Their Human senses made them laugh based on what they saw in front of them.
Faith in God
When they put their “Confidence” in God then Faith became “Hope” to get the blessing
How does this apply to the definition of Faith defined in Hebrews 11:1
Confidence – They had the confidence in God, when their human situation made that impossible
Hope – They had the desire that God will fulfil that in spite of their incapable situation
Confidence and Hope resulted in Birth of Isaac Genesis 21:1-7
But wait the Faith definition is not complete yet, as there is one thing that’s missing “assurance”, We learn how Faith and assurance worked in Abrahams testing.
Abraham testing and his blessing
Read Genesis 22 (fully to understand the context), I have picked ones that we need to learn from this Faith experience.
God Commanding Abraham what to do - 'Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” ' Genesis 22:2,9-12
God’s Promise - 'The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord , that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” ' Genesis 22:15-18
God’s Promise Getting fulfilled - 'This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ' Matthew 1:1-2
Lessons we can learn from Abraham testing and its context to Faith
Obedience to God - Remember Abraham was 100 Yrs. When he had Isaac, God tests him by asking him to Sacrifice the only Son he had got after 100Yrs. If I were in his situation I would say “No way God”, but he Obeyed
Love for God – He Loved God more than his only son Isaac we read “Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son”
God’s Blessing
God expected two things from him , “Obedience and Love”, he did show both, immediately angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,”
We see Faith in Action – The word says Faith without action is dead, 'In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ' James 2:17
God’s Blessing as Assurance - I swear by myself, declares the Lord , that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore
God Assures himself for the action that Abraham did “- I swear by myself, declares the Lord”
His blessing is “make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky” – can you count the stars in sky, the sand on the seashore. – Can you count the sand in seashore
God’s blessing outcome is recorded in Matthew 1 - 'This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:”, even though he was not there to see the blessing, God’s blessing was true, generations after generations
Let’s apply Abraham action to the Faith definition we read in Hebrews 11:1
Confidence – Abraham / Sarah had the confidence in God, when their human situation made that impossible
Hope – Abraham / Sarah had the desire that God will fulfil that in spite of their incapable situation, so they got the son Isaac
Assurance - God tested for Obedience and Love, to give the Assurance and blessing
How can we apply Faith to ‘Faith in Action’
'And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. ' Hebrews 11:6
Many of us may be like Abraham / Sarah where we have 100% No chance of getting what we need, we may be faced with a dead end situation externally.
The word says “without faith it is impossible to please God” so let’s have the faith , irrespective of what your current situation may be, don’t let unbelief take over you. This will take you to the 1st stage of faith – Confidence in God.
Many time we say God, I trust you, I have faith in you, but as child of God, we will constantly be challenged by Satan to say the Faith in God is not right, he will show things which will go against God and bring back the un-belief in you. He follows many deceptive things to do his. So be firm. Your God is in control. It has to be like a steady rock and unshakable.
Remember – “he rewards those who earnestly seek him “ this means we have to pray to him, be obedient to him and following his will on what he has planned for you and me, Only then his promises to us will be fulfilled.
When you pray
Remember God understands emotions and feelings.
Tell your situation of unbelief based on what you see, tell the exact situation what you went thru, talk to him like how a child will talk to his father.
Ask for direction. He understands your situation and will show signs to make stand firm with him.
Obey God no matter how bad your situation may be.
Fear and faith are opposite to each other. if there is fear then there won’t be faith. ask God to have the faith and reduce the fear of situation. Remember God says “fear not” 365 times in the bible, that is for everyday throughout the year.
Remember Faith has “Confidence in God” (Stage 1) , “Hope in God” (Stage 2) and “Assurance in God” (Stage 3) . Once we have Faith to make Faith into action we need to activate minimum 2 stages of Faith (Confidence in God and Hope in God), to get the full blessing from God we need to get the Assurance from God.
Don’t stop your faith to be in Stage 1 or Stage 2, Lets us keep practicing Faith to make Faith in Action till we reach Stage 3 and receive like Abraham, Remember God is same yesterday / today and tomorrow.
The God who was faithful to Abraham is also the same God for us today. His delay in fulfilling his promises cannot be always his denial, remember it took 100Yrs. for Abraham to have Isaac. God uses delays to test us just in case of Abraham .And how should we respond? Answer is Don’t fear and have all three stages of faith .
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