Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

FROM A DISTANCE

June 5, 2009

We continue our pondering "faith." Just what is it, and how does it lift our lives today?

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise....
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance...

- Hebrews 11:11,13 TNIV

Two things: #1, I urge you to read Hebrews 11 in one thoughtful bite. See how "faith" is lived in the lives of these many people. Look for what you learn about faith in its words. #2, faith in what? "She considered him faithful..." The focus of faith Sarah knew was God and God's promise to her. She held that promise even beyond her life, trusting God would prove faithful.

Such use of the word "faith" differs from the way the word is tossed about today where faith is little more than a rabbit's foot, and a whim for a genie in a bottle to grant our wish. Faith in Jesus Christ is for this real world, and its real challenges those we face up close and those we confront from a distance.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson