Certainty and Hope

 Today's Reading:
Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22
Hebrews 11:1-16
Psalm 131:1-3 
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Focus Verses: Hebrews 11:1-2
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

Insight:
By faith, it is possible to have a certainty about how I see the world and where I place my hope. The story of faith recorded in the Scriptures includes many men and women who lived by faith. What they believed about God guided their choices and actions. Real faith looks beyond circumstances and the limitations of self. 

Hebrews 11:39-40 - "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

People who have faith in God look beyond what they have received and what they are experiencing today. They believe that God has something better planned for humankind, and that he will be faithful to his promises.

Response and Action:
I will put my faith in God. I believe that God has something better planned for his people, something better for me, and something better for the world. I will follow the example of the long train of believers throughout history who have exemplified faith in God.

My faith in God, and confidence in his promises, will guide my actions and choices each day. I will live each day with a certainty about God's love and faithfulness.

O God, increase my faith. Help me to live out my faith in thought, word, and deed. Help me to gain insight, inspiration, and encouragement from examples of faith recorded in Scripture and throughout Christian history. Help me to look beyond what is seen and to grasp what is unseen and yet so real. May I, like the ancients of the faith, be commended one day for my steadfast confidence in you. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being  renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Resources:
Living Faith: A Guide to the Christian Life
by John Schwarz