78. Faith: The certainity of things not seen.

From the definition of faith, we come across two aspects (a particular part or feature of something) that constitute faith. 'Faith is the substance or surety of things hoped for, the evidence or certainity of things not seen.'(Hebrews 11:1 KJV/ NIV) The first aspect being the 'certainty of the existence of God' and the second aspect being the 'surety of things asked for in prayer'. We interact with the seen world outside us with our five senses and in addition to them, we do have a sixth sense (an instinctive and intuitive faculty not explicable in terms of normal perception) by which we become conscious of the dangers around us and try to avoid them. If so, faith is also is a God given faculty by which we become conscious of the unseen God because 'anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek him'. (Vs 6) God gave us a measure of faith that we may believe in him.( Romans 12:3) That is why faith is a gift of God . 'You have been saved by faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.'(Ephesians 2:8) So we can't get ourselves to believe rather it is an instinct to believe the unseen ! And without faith we cannot interact with God. No wonder God is so pleased with those who exercise faith! Faith is the ability to believe while trust is our response. All have faith but very few trust. Even demons have faith! 'You believe that there is one God. Good! Even demons believe that and shudder!' (James 2:19) So faith is not an end in itself but it is our response to faith that makes it whole, which is the second aspect that was mentioned earlier ie., 'surety' or 'substance' of things hoped for! 'This is what the ancients were commended for.'(Hebrews 11:1) Amen.