Just a quick post today, about faith.
There was once upon a time when I was cold-called in college by one of those college christian group guys just asking if I wanted to join and if I had any questions. I had heard about being sucked in to one of those groups, and I was a little wary, since I pretty much knew nothing at the time. I figured, ok, he called, let’s ask a question, and I asked “What is faith?” After some stammering and me nodding along in my dorm room, I figured he didn’t really have an answer and I politely told him I wasn’t interested and then hung up. That was that.
Years later, I look back on those 5 minutes and think maybe I was just a bit unforgiving. I mean, it’s a big question, and he was just some guy in college, like me. And cold-calling stinks. Maybe I should have been a bit nicer. Could I even answer the question if someone asked me? I can say that I’ve experienced the power of having faith, and the security that comes with it, but could I give a succinct answer without going into my life story?
Then, one of my friends, Kirsten from One Tough Mother, shared this quote with me one day, and it kinda stuck with me. This is it. This is a quote that made me think and look back on my own experiences and realize, yup, this is exactly it. Faith is unseen, but more than that, and it’s packaged all nicely right here in one little line, thanks to Oswald Chambers. If you like it too, feel free to print it out!
(I’d prefer you not print it out, pop it in a frame, and then sell it for $20, but I can’t exactly stop you, so that’s my disclaimer.)
Oswald Chambers’ phrase is a great one to use, as it really does simplify the whole, huge, topic of what faith is 🙂
But, when I first read the New World Translation of the Bible, I came across this scripture, at Hebrews 11:1, and it really explained to me, in a nutshell, just what faith is:
‘Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.’
At the time of writing, the Greek term used was translated as ‘assured expectation’. This was a commonplace phrase in business documents of the day, and it held the premise that this carried a guarantee of a future possession of whatever had been purchased, whether the receipt was kept, or not – I guess a little like our purchasers rights nowadays :
The phrase ‘evident demonstration’ tells the reader that God was very able to produce evidence of his promises, despite any denials to the contrary. It’s a similar situation to the belief, in the past, that the sun rotated around the earth – to the naked eye, this seemed to be the case but, as was then discovered, the actuality was that the earth turns around the sun.
Once this evidence was shown to be true, we all had faith that this was so, and so this tells us that, with all of the scientific evidence that we have been given through the bible, our faith is anything but blind – and we can glean all the facts we need by reading the bible regularly, and then reflecting on what we have read. In this way we can then build up a strong faith, based on our ability to see things as they actually are, rather than how we’d like them to be 🙂
As it goes on to say in Hebrews 11:6:
‘Moreover, without faith it is impossible to please [him] well, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.’
Awesome quote! There’s a song we sing in our praise and worship band that this makes me think of. It’s “Give Me Faith” by Elevation Worship. Whenever I sing that song, I really sing it from the heart because the lyrics are “Give me faith to trust what you say, that you’re good and your love is great, I’m broken inside, I give you my life” I think a lot of times the hard part about faith is that you may know God is good and that He wants the best for us, but it’s really hard to believe in our hearts when we go through tough situations. If you’ve never heard the song, I would totally recommend listening to it. And thanks for sharing this quote!
ChiWei, I love this printable. I’m also so glad your site is back up! 😀
Pinning this now! I love the quote and the font/color choices. Just out of curiosity, what editing software did you use to create this? PS or PSE? If so, was the distressed look inherent of the font choice or did you use an overlay?
Thanks for sharing. I love it!
LOVE this-thanks for sharing your creation!
This is the perfect gift for my friend! I am going to print one for my boys’ room too, thanks!
I’m so glad you like it Jodi!
Love it!!! Thank you so much!
Can I print this out and have it made into a iron on for a T-shirt to make for family members for Christmas Gifts. They won’t be sold. I promise you