Faith: Against All Odds

Introduction

A few weeks ago I wrapped up the Black & White Series and now want to write a little about Faith, what it looks like, and its implications for our life. If you would like to catch up on the Black & White series here are the links:

What is Faith?

Few Scriptures offer us a clear definition of an aspect of the Christian life, but in the case of faith we have Hebrews 11:1-3 that offers us great clarification.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
We have a clear description of what faith is: confidence in what's hoped for, assurance in the unseen, and an understanding that God spoke the cosmos into existence. The commonality here is that faith is placed within a word and not what is seen. We will look at each of these elements of faith and how we can use it in our daily life, but for now I want to focus on hope. We will look at how faith is Word based next week.

Supernatural Hope

We hope for what is not seen or else it would not be hope--no one has ever hoped for something they already have, but we will hope for something of the future that we are told of. Abraham was commended for his faith as a man who put hope against doubt.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness" (Rom 4:18-22).
The difference in faith-hope is that we are hoping for what has been promised to us, and not for something that we make up and simply have blind-hope that it happens. See the difference? In one we are placing our hope in something that was promised to us; in the other we are placing our hope in something that is conjured up, or not promised to us. Faith-hope is confidence that what we are told is true, and will happen, no matter what the odds against us are!

My wife Haley and I now have a two year old son, Raines, and we love him to death! It took us about a year and a half to get pregnant with Raines because of some physical complications. During that time we wondered if we were ever going to have children together, but in that season we had a dear friend give us a prophetic word about us having children together--it was a promise from God! Haley and I took hold of that word, prayed into it, and asked our community around us to pray with us as well, and against all odds Haley got pregnant; even better the complications that made it so hard for Haley to become pregnant were healed!

It was our hope in God's promise that got us through that season. The key for us was where we were fixing our eyes--on the promise of God, or on the outcome of our circumstance? When we placed our hope in God confidence was stirred in our hearts, and as we placed our vision on our circumstance we became more discouraged and defeated. What got us through was the same thing that got Abraham through--hope in God and his promise for us!

Hope in God

So, what about you? Where do you find yourself today? Do you need a hope that does not disappoint?  Do you need hope to inspire confidence within your soul? 

They key is to anchor your hope in the promises of God. What are some of the promises in Scripture that you can stand on? What has God been speaking to you lately? Take those things and live as if they are real, because they are! Circumstance no longer defines your situation, your hope in God does! Take the words of David from Psalm 42:5 (also read the whole Psalm for more encouragement and hope) and live:
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

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