Hebrews 11: The Hall of Faith

Intimidated yet? "the hall of faith" is not supposed to be something that discourages us, but rather something that spurs us on to understand what faith really is and what God desires for His children. He WANTS to reward us. God's love is so great that even though we will prove to fall short in our lives, he has promised to reward those that seek Him and live a righteous life. If you look at some of the characters that are written about in this "Faith Hall", you will find that they all failed miserably in front of God....but they also did their best to please God with their lives too.

So what is this faith? What does it look like?

Heb. 11:1 says that faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for and the CONVICTION of things not seen. These people make up the "clouds of witnesses" which all speak testimony to God's Glory and help to remind us to persevere in our lives.

1. ABEL- I was actually surprised to see his name here because in my mind I simply saw him as the guy that died early on because of his jealous brother. The truth is that he is included in this list because of his righteousness and obedience. Abel sacrificed his best and was rewarded with death. But he "still speaks" because of his righteous act.

God desires our best. He rewards and commends us to live sacrificial lives so we can experience freedom in Him. [an eternity living with Him on a restored earth without sin]

2. ENOCH- He was simply known for "walking with God". And that's really all we know about him. He obtained a witness before death that pleased God and was rewarded. However, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. We must believe that God is a rewarder of those that seek Him because God promises to do so!

[Gen. 15:1; Dt. 4:29; 1 Ch. 28:9; Ps. 58:11; Is. 40:10]

3. NOAH- In reverence and without "seeing" the truth of God's claims, he built a HUGE ark on dry land without the slightest hint of rain, much less a flash flood. Noah's righteousness secured his faith. His faith was expressed in his obedience.

And that is exactly what God requires of us. FAITHFULNESS to him, and OBEDIENCE. It doesn't mean we won't screw up, but it does mean that we recognize the sacrifice He gave, His love shown through His Son's sacrifice, that we accept that gift and subsequently live in FAITH that God will reward us for being OBEDIENT to Him!

May God bless you as you are FAITHFUL. :)