Ch. 83 - Faith

"True faith is never found alone; it is accompanied by expectation."
- C.S. Lewis

A few months ago at Cru, we were given pieces of paper with quotes on them. There were five different quotes, and this is the first I'd like to focus on. I'm really glad that I kept these little slips of paper; I had pinned them up on my desk's bulletin board that night after Cru and they remained there even when I was walking away from Christ. When I was moving to the summer dorm I took them down and put them in my memory box. I just put them up on my board yesterday and I keep reading them again and again and again.

"True faith is never found alone; it is accompanied by expectation."

The first thing that comes to my mind when I read or say this is a verse from Hebrews:

'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.'
[Hebrews 11:1, NASB]

The first time I had truly heard and read this verse was a couple years ago. Our head pastor, Harlan, was giving the sermon and he had the congregation repeat this verse a good ten times throughout his sermon. He believes it to be one of those verses that we should all have memorized. And I agree.

Harlan used the NASB (New American Standard Bible) translation and I'm glad. It has a nice ring to it, you know? So this is the version that I have committed to memory. However, the NIV (New International Version) translation works better with the quote, I think:

'Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.'
[Hebrews 11:1, NIV]

Expectation is found alongside faith. We will set expectations from our God through our faith. We will expect God to do. To give. To love. To speak. To heal. To forgive. But is it all of a shallow faith? To have faith in a God whom we believe will do anything for us - going through the motions, expecting something from Him all the time. We have to expect things from God. If we want to be forgiven, we have to ask for it while thoroughly believing that He will forgive us. Otherwise what's the point of asking?

"Hey God. Umm... I kind of need you to forgive me for what I said yesterday. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, you don't have to. And if you can't, that's ok. Like, it's no big deal, you know? But yeah. Sweet. Uhh, 'nJesusnameIprayAmen."

This is not the way to go about it. First of all, if you say that God doesn't have to, then why are you asking in the first place? Secondly, who are you to question whether God can do something? He can do anything! And He's done everything by giving us His Son. Even so, He doesn't expect anything from us but belief and love. Yet He still wants to share in our hopes and our failures and our dreams and our misfortunes and yes, our expectations. We can give it all to Him if we so desire.

If you have anything on your heart right now - whatever it may be - I challenge you to share it with God. Know - expect - that He is listening and that He cares.


'The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.'
[Proverb 11:23]

......

Ch. Eighty-Two, Part Two:

After I finished writing this post, I went to www.christnotes.com because all of a sudden it just came into my head; I hadn't visited this site for about two and a half months. I checked the Daily Bible Verse, and guess what it was?

Hebrews 11:1,3

I just laughed and laughed and laughed when I saw that.

[Verse 3 says: 'By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.']