Living By Faith
 In the book of Hebrews faith is defined as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." F. F. Bruce, a respected biblical scholar, says this means that men and women are to accept God's future as being present and to live accordingly. What does this mean? One thing it means is that we can trust God to bring our lives to a good end even though we may be living with difficulty.
Lets look to the Psalms for an example of this principle of living by faith. In Psalm 91 the writer very enthusiastically says that God will protect us no matter what. Listen to his confidence:
10No evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. 11For he will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways.
Now we turn to Psalm 137 and listen to this psalmist's pain:
8Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who rewards you, as you have served us. 9Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
We do not know who wrote either psalm but one was feeling good and the other feeling terrible. Why didn't the second psalmist sense the same protection from God? Did God favor one psalmist over the other? What does faith mean to these writers? The happy psalmist says God will protect us against every from of evil. The unhappy psalmist says God did not protect his child from a brutal death. He longs for vengeance. The truth of the matter lies beyond both of these writers. God is good and evil does exist. God does protect His people but they must also suffer. We cannot side with either man but with the truth that is beyond them both. And what is this truth? It is the truth we receive by faith and live out in our lives: God works for our good and our lives will have a good end. If we cannot live by this faith then we are doomed to despair and anger.
Truth does not always come running when logic whistles. We must live with ambiguity even though we do not want to do so. We cannot have easy answers to every problem, and some problems seem to defy any answer at all. Truth is something we arrive at through our experience of faith. Pain is something to live through on the ground of God's unfailing love and justice. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us we can live by what is "hoped for," by "the conviction of things not seen" as yet. What is it that is "hoped for" and not yet "seen?" It is the fullness of God's will in our experience. The words quoted above from Hebrews 11 are at the beginning of what the Church calls a "chapter of the faithful." Person after person is called as a witness to the life that is looking for God's promise but never quite seeing it. The author of Hebrews is trying to show that many, many people looked for the promised Messiah and yet died before He came. While the illustration refers to Jesus, the central truth of Hebrews is applicable to each of our lives today. As the people of God we continue to live in hope of the kingdom of God. We live in confidence that it will come, confidence based on the faithful love of God. God will not fail. That is what faith says, no matter what our present circumstance.
Jerry Mercer
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