Faith: The Substance of Things

New Testament   Hebrews 11

- Verse -

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… 3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God… 4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,…  5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death;…   6 … without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.  8 By faith Abraham, … sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:…   11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age….  13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:1-13

 

Faith is the substance of things for which we hope

The proof and evidence of things unseen

Our motivation to keep going and cope

With the trials before us and those unforeseen

 

By faith, this world and others not yet revealed

 Were formed by God and came into existence

That His children might learn to grow and yield

Their wills to His just and merciful insistence

 

Only by faith can we please and honor God

As attested by holy prophets, then and now

As by faith we firmly grip truth’s Iron Rod

God’s word of power to bless and endow    

 

By Abel’s sacrifice, by Enoch’s translation

With Noah’s flood, and Abraham’s seed

Hope is confirmed through faith’s manifestation

Where faith’s reward is assured and guaranteed

 

May we have hope and faith in God’s guarantee

Of a glorious, glorified and immortal rebirth

Resurrected to life everlasting by His eternal decree

No longer strangers and pilgrims on the earth

 

Larry Doyle Crenshaw