Biblical Faith: What it IS, Really

July 26, 2024

Here is the Biblical definition of faith...

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Faith

isn’t just hope. Faith takes it a step farther. Let’s go back to the story of Noah to look at this. He built an ark to save his family.

Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. 

Now why did Noah build the ark? 

Did the story go like this? Noah is looking around going, “Boy, I think everybody in the world is evil. Let’s get the family together. 

We’re going to pray. ‘God, we just pray that you would kill everybody. We pray that you would like rain, rain down on everybody and to show you

how much faith we have in you we’re going to build a boat.’ Then, God’s going, “Well, I really hadn’t thought of that but gosh, look at their

faith. They’re building that boat, I don’t feel like I have any choice. Okay, Noah, tell me when you are ready.” 

No! The story went nothing like that. Who initiated the whole deal with Noah and the Ark and the flood? God did.

That wasn’t Noah’s idea. But look what the text says, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat.” Noah built the Ark by faith. Not hope.

He didn’t just hope God was going to do what he said he was going to do… he had faith. “I believe this is your idea and I believe it’s going to

rain. Let’s get building.” That’s a picture of how you do something by faith. 

The BRIDGE between hope and faith is the PROMISE of God.  

That the bridge between what we can hope for to what we can trust God for is the promise of God.  Noah built an Ark because God made a promise. “It is going to rain.” Noah said, “I believe you.”  

Faith: is confidence that God is WHO He says He is and that He WILL DO everything He has promised to do.  

That’s all faith is! That’s what Noah acted on. “I believe you are who you say you are. If you say it’s going to rain, I think you can make

it rain. You want us to build a boat? We’re going to build a boat.” God said, “That’s an act of faith.”

We can come to God and ask for anything we want. We can hope that he answers our prayer. We have faith that he can answer our prayers the way we ask, but you can’t “faith” your way into getting God to do what you want. 

Because faith isn’t a power or a force.

Faith is simply confidence that God can do what we’ve asked him to do.

Now, if God makes a promise, just like Noah, we CAN have faith that God WILL do what he said he is going to do. God is faithful to answer his promises, always.