Lesson 9: Trusting a God We Can’t See (part 1)

Read: Hebrews 11 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.esv

How can I trust a God I can't see? This is a question of faith and is the subject of our next few lessons.

First, I would like to ask a question. I will tell you up front this is a trick question, and since I hate trick questions, I’ll tell you the purpose of the question ahead of time – I want you to know what your faith is made up of and how you can grow in your faith in God. The question is:
*If you had perfect and complete faith, what would your world look like?

The first thing we need to do is to define what faith is. According to the dictionary it is "loyalty or allegiance" or "complete confidence in a person or plan." Does this definition help us any with our trick question? Not really. So, how does the Bible define faith? Of course, for this answer we go to Hebrews 11:1 which says "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."


There are many misunderstandings about faith in the Christian culture of our world. The pendulum swings between two different extremes. On the one extreme we have those who say faith is a mystical thing because it is made up of things not seen and so therefore cannot be fully comprehended. This is the "Thomas" version of faith; he would only believe what he could see (John 20:25). The other extreme is usually called "name it and claim it" Christianity. This extreme believes they will receive anything they want, as long as they call themselves Christians and have enough faith.

Both extremes are wrong. The first extreme is not truly faith, and the second extreme is not faith in God. The first is nothing more than faith in our own ability to understand or see. The second is, quite simply, greed.

We are told by Jesus in Mark 11:22 we are to "have faith in God."

We will search for the answers in the next lessons. To answer the first extreme we must concentrate on the first word of this statement of Jesus - have. It is a choice, it is something we can choose to have or choose not to have.

*How are you choosing today between faith in what you cannot see and wanting things you can see?