By Faith! (Faith for the Faith Goals)

It’s the part of the year where we consecrate ourselves, pray and fast for the year to come. We look back at God’s faithfulness of the past year and we set our FAITH GOALS for the year ahead – things that we believe God would do in and through our lives this year.

Yearly we do this in hope and in faith for greater things along the way. We have our faith goals, God is faithful and we’re told to have faith. But what does it mean to have faith for our faith goals? Today let us go back to a verse in the bible that powerfully defines faith.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the ‘confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see’ (NLT). Basically, having faith is having security of things ahead of us that is out of our control.

Let me share with you THREE elements of faith shown in this verse:

Position – This is WHO WE ARE.

In Hebrews 11:1, the author defined faith as confidence and assurance. Other version defines it as conviction (ESV). These words resound to me as security.

The first element of faith is position – know your position in Christ. Having confidence is standing in a sure platform of security – your relationship with the One whom you trust, your position in Him, who you are in Him. Faith is believing with the right posture of the heart that you are secured enough you will be answered in the near future.

Be secured of who you are in Christ, because with that comes the confidence we need to believe. Take hold of your position! You are not an orphan. You are His son! You are His daughter!

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11

Know your position in Christ.

Present – This is WHEN TO BELIEVE.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see”.

In terms of speaking of time, ‘I have faith’ is same as saying ‘I currently believe’. The second element of faith is present time – believing currently the things of the past that we have not seen and believing currently for things in the future. We have our faith NOW for something that we believe happened in the PAST and things we believe will happen in the FUTURE. As for our faith goals, we are believing God for things of the future.

There is no other time to have faith but NOW.

Person – This is WHOM TO TRUST.

Hebrews 11:1 is a rich and powerful definition of faith. Reading through it over and over, I knew faith is NEVER by chance. Faith is not the same as leaving a matter floating in the air then waiting if it will happen or not. Faith is being SURE of it. Faith gives out trust. But who do we trust?

Before answering that question, let me state the meaning of the following words used to define faith:

Confidence means the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something. It is a firm trust.

Assurance means a positive declaration intended to give confidence; a promise; confidence or certainty in one’s own abilities.

Conviction is a formal declaration; a firmly held belief .

Security is the state of feeling safe, stable, and free from danger, threat, fear or anxiety.

Now with these definitions, one thing unfolding in this verse is having confidence and assurance in a Person who sees things we cannot see and who can do things we are out of control of. We cannot be secured of a thing in the future without knowing Someone holds it all for us.

The third and most important element of faith is knowing the Person whom we trust – that there is Someone greater than us who works all things together for our good. We cannot be confident and assured of things of the future without knowing who we are to be confident of. God’s character can be trusted. Therefore we can have faith in Him.

Having faith goals is not achieving a list of things we want to do in our lives all by ourselves with our own might. Know your position in front of His – let your hands not be working your way to the completion of your goals, rather let your hands be in the position of surrender, praise and worship to the One who is above you.

Let God do what only He can do.

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1

Above all else, what I love about faith is this: That it reveals who we are, our identity that is sure beneath every timeline, unfolding to us the beauty of God and His love for us – faith is one beautiful thing God has created to reflect His everlasting love to us.

Having faith for the faith goals means knowing who God is.

My prayer for you this 2018 is that more than the faith goals, God will give you the greatest need of your heart – and that is Him alone and alone. May He open up your eyes to see how beautiful He is. May everything in this world be tasteless to you as you taste and see that the LORD is good – really good.

Drop all things. Stop writing the faith goals for a moment. God wants those hands embracing Him more than seeing it writing.

Having faith goals is good but an intimacy with God is GREATER.

Faith, Hope and Love.Indeed, the greatest of these is LOVE.

Be in love with the LORD!