Full of Faith
Hebrews 11
When thinking about the term faithful servant, we must consider what it means to be “full of faith.”
The author of Hebrews defines faith as, “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (verse 1)
To be full of faith means to be full of confidence. Assured. The author of Hebrews describes people who were full of this confidence. Though they could not see how the promise God made to them would be fulfilled, they trusted, with confidence, that God would see them through.
Though they all had circumstances that required this confidence. Their ultimate faith was that God would somehow eradicate evil and unite himself with all people. (Genesis 3:15, 17:3) All of these people of faith died still awaiting the coming messiah who would accomplish this.
Yet, because of Christ, these faithful servants are now united with all believers through Jesus the messiah. The author writes this in verses 39 & 40:
“39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
Though they did not see Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, in their lifetime, they maintained confidence in the fact that God would redeem them.
As faithful servants now reconciled to God, we will endure trial and hardship. Like the people listed in this passage, we may not see complete healing in this lifetime. We might not see the eradication of evil in this lifetime. But we can have confidence that the resurrected Jesus will also resurrect us one day.
While the people described in this passage were full of faith, that doesn’t mean they were perfect. Being a faithful servant doesn’t require perfection, it just requires perseverance in faith. All of the people in this passage had some pretty bad screw ups - Abraham and Sarah abused their servant, Jacob was a deciever, David was murderous and adulterous.
Like them, we have all messed up in different ways. But, we can have confident faith in our God because he is faithful to us. Even in our biggest mistakes, God gives us forgiveness and grace to persevere through Jesus. The stories in this passage demonstrate that God’s faithful grace is bigger than our biggest mistakes.
As a response to this passage consider doing the following exercise:
If the author of Hebrews wrote you into this passage, what would they say about you? Said another way, what trial are you going through that you want to trust God in? What do you need to remain faithful through? If you saw yourself on the other side, what would you say about your journey of faith?
Write this statement down, and pray that God would make this type of faith true of you.
