Faith is our confidence for what we hope

Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

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

The apostle expresses that whatever the object of our hope is it also the object of our faith. For if we are to have hope we must also have faith in that hope for it is yet to occur. As a Christian one has hope of salvation that provides an eternal life free from sin. One must also have faith in the salvation promised to us in Christ; for while it may be obtained it is not yet seen. We are told by the apostle faith is the assurance about the things we cannot see. Faith speaks to our sense of reality and in our mind’s eye we can behold what cannot be seen by the eye of the body. For if we have faith in God, we have hope in God that we can sense and know Him and act accordingly towards Him in all that we believe but have not seen.

In The Bible, John chapter 20 gives an account of Jesus appearing to the disciples after His death.  One of the twelve disciples, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Those who have faith in Christ are blessed to know Him even though they have not seen Him. For in faith Christ walks with us and we know He is with us. In faith we believe and sense the presence of Christ with us. Our faith allows us to have a wonderful, loving and beautiful relationship with one whom we have not seen and we are blessed by that relationship. In our relationship with Christ we have a friend who loves us unconditionally, who accepts us for who we are, and offers mercy, grace and compassion when we fail. We know His love and we love Him for who He is and the sacrifice He made for us. We know Christ in our faith and we know the hope of His salvation in our faith. For we believe sight unseen the things revealed to our mind. Faith is our confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.