"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1
The verse struck me as I read it this morning. It's a seemingly straight-forward definition...but I think there are a lot of nuances that I missed in the past.
"Faith is being sure of what we hope for"
.....so what do we hope for? The nature of your faith depends on what you put your faith in. I used to always assume that faith of any form was something good and pure. But when I stop to think about it, faith is more like money, a kind of currency. The nature of your faith depends on what you put your faith in.
I could be a madman hoping for the destruction of the world and be sure that it was coming tomorrow at precisely 3:02 when I pushed a big red button to detonate a global bomb. Would I be a madman full of faith?
For my faith to be right, my hopes need to be right. And for my hopes to be right, I need to align my heart with God's.
So it all comes back to knowing the heart of God; to hope what He hopes for; then I know my faith is right.
"...and certain of what we do not see."
I think it's interesting, the emphasis on the visual aspect.
"See" indicates only one of the five senses, the same sense that's referred to in 2 Corinthians 5:7 - "For we live by faith, not by sight."
Maybe it's referring to the fact that we primarily navigate our lives through our eyes. But I think it might also hint that...there are other ways that we "sense" God. I don't believe that verse is saying that we should believe things without having concrete evidence (what we don't see).
There are many other ways that we can confirm that something is real, aren't there? Even in the physical world...there are traces of things left behind that we can't necessarily see, but are proof of existence. Smells, sounds, tastes, memories..maybe even feelings...
And then, of course, there's the spiritual, which transcends our understanding. I believe that it's through the promptings of the Spirit, revelations given by God that we may not see, but can sense nonetheless - God's precious word and subtle affirmations, memories of God's faithfulness and blessings, things that are not necessarily set before our eyes in the present but that together can be construed as a testimony to God's promises:
These are the things that make us certain of what we do not see.