Faith: Seeing With The Eyes Of The Soul
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1
Contrary to popular belief, faith is not a blind leap in the dark, an attempt to believe something regardless of the evidence, or a hope and a prayer.
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Faith. How could something that appears so uncertain be the basis for something the Scripture communicates as certain? Either the world is wrong or the Bible is wrong. Matthew Henry explores the Biblical definition of faith.
WALK WITH MATTHEW HENRY
“Here we have a twofold definition of faith. First, it ‘is confidence in what we hope for.’
“Faith and hope go together. Faith is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ. And this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul by the firstfruits and foretastes of them, so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
“Second, it is … ‘assurance about what we do not see.’ Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. It is the firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal that God is true. It is a full approval of all that God has revealed as holy, just, and good; and so it is designed to serve the believer instead of sight, and to be to the soul all that the senses are to the body.”
WALK CLOSER TO GOD
In the physical realm, one can say, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” But on the spiritual level, one must turn that idea around and say, “I’ll see it when I believe it!”
For example, Noah and Abraham—along with many others—are enshrined in God’s “Hall of Faith” (that is, Hebrews 11). They saw God at work in their lives—when they believed.
Their spiritual vision was 20/20. How’s yours?
