Faith is the key, don’t stop believing.

In Him you’ll find a love that stays close by.

ALVIN SLAUGHTER

In the opening of Heb. 11, we see the definition of faith.

Different people have different things to say about faith. Faith is conviction that God will fulfill His promises to you. In v.1, we can deduce 2 keywords that describe faith : Confidence (in God’s character) and Certainty (that God will fulfill His promises) .

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Let’s do a quick run down through the Heroes of faith before you close this article:

GOD is introduced as the first person in the Hall of Faith. He is not one of the Heroes of faith. He is GOD and showed us what faith is and how it operates when He created the world. Scripture tells us He called the world into existence out of nothing. He taught us to believe Him even when we can not see Him working.

• Abel is our first hero of faith. He offered a more pleasant sacrifice to God than Cain by faith. This is a reminder that we are not righteous by our works of good but by faith. (Gal. 2:16)

• Next, we see Enoch who pleased God by faith. He didn’t die but was taken away instead . . .

• Noah was a man full of faith. Imagine walking down the street and someone just stops you saying there’ll be a heavy rain. He says you should open an umbrella to avoid getting drenched. It sounds unbelievable but you do it anyways and everyone you pass by either laughs, shakes their head in pity or says something harsh. I mean, it sounds really dumb for Noah to have done all he did despite the rejection he got from neighbours. Obey God irrespective of what people call you.

• Moving down the Hall of Faith, we see our renowned hero of faith – Abraham. He is popularly known as the Father of Faith. All his life, he did faith! From leaving his father’s house to believing God’s covenant down to almost sacrificing his son. The part of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son encourages me to trust God with anything at all. Whether it be my dreams, passions or even someone I love. What does it speak to you about ? I will like to know in the comment section .

• Our very own queen of laughter is up next – Sarah. Like every young lady I know that wants to have a fairytale wedding, have children immediately (maybe) and all that. I am pretty sure Sarah had her own dreams too. Life had other plans though but God had plans right from the start. You know He’s never taken by surprise right? It is true Sarah laughed when she heard she will have Isaac but she believed later on . When doubt comes, choose to still have faith and ask God to help you.
• The promised son, Isaac was a channel through which God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. Isaac had 2 sons, Jacob and Esau. God chose to multiply Abraham’s descendants through Jacob.

• Jacob was the father of the well-known 12 tribes of Israel. He keyed into and believed the promise God made to his father. Of course, it was fulfilled through him because Faith is the key!

• Joseph‘s life was one full of ups and downs but even in all that happened, God was present. When he was almost dying, he still had faith in God to fulfill His promise and lead the Israelites into the land of promise. God is faithful even when things don’t go well. Don’t stop believing! Have faith!

• Moses was living the life! I mean, king-sized bed, finest meat and wine, popularity. It definitely took faith for him to leave all of that behind and press towards the ‘seemingly unknown’ . It is just like someone leaving their current job to another. Or leaving one town to another without knowing how the people over there will treat you . Or better still, not knowing what your future holds. Like Moses, trust God to keep to His Word. (Jer 29:11)

• Aha! The Israelites. The professional murmurers of Bible time. They must have been a huge pain in Moses’s ass. It’s the faith despite their fears for me. I can picture them fidgeting while walking through the Red Sea. If it were you, you would have probably passed out. Trusting God in tough situations can be really difficult. Yes! Doubt will come but when it does, choose faith still.

• Who would have thought that Rahab would be in the genealogy of Jesus ? She was a Gentile and a harlot too. Her faith in God to save her and her family was wild though. Her story teaches us that regardless of our past, we can be new people in Christ. As hard as that can be to take in, it is true!

Conclusion

Many other heroes of faith are mentioned here. These people’s lives and stories are not meant to merely entertain you. Instead, they are to challenge you to trust in GOD and have crazy faith in Him. The whole point of Hebrews 11 is to guide us on how to live by faith.

I hope you were inspired by this post. If you were, please share on your social media platforms and please, leave a comment in response to the question asked above or in addition as I always love to hear from you.

P. S: (Whispers) A blog series is coming !

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: Believe