What is Faith? (Part 1)

By Barbara Keim

September 1, 2007

Through numerous conversations I have had recently my heart has been stirred to see what God has to say about faith. It turns out that without faith it is impossible to please God.

The best definition I found that the scriptures give for faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The entire chapter in Hebrews 11 is a good place to start reading about faith. I read Abraham's story about how God spoke to him about having a baby when he was already old and Sarah's womb was dead (beyond child bearing years). I read about Abraham's faith in Romans 4:13 -25 and 5:1-11. Because of space restrictions I am not going to type all these verses, but I would encourage you to get your Bible out and read them. To this point in time Abraham and Sarah have had no children and Abraham is 100 years old and I believe Sarah was 90. How hard would it be for you or me to believe this was going to happen?

If we want to please God we have to have this kind of faith. We have to believe in a God who hung the stars and made the oceans and everything in it. We have to realize that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We also have to realize that He does not have different rules for different people. It does not matter what country you are from. It does not matter what religious background you are from. God's plan and purpose for every human on this earth is to become a part of His family. That is why He sent Jesus to make a way for us to become His children. We can only become His children though faith. God did not write a different Bible for all different people on the earth. He only wrote one.

God bless you all and let's continue this journey, learning about faith that pleases God when we meet again in a couple of months. I would love to hear from you and hear about your meditations and revelations as you study this thing called faith that God talks about so much in His Word. Please read Romans Chapter 10. It tells how we can receive this faith.

Have a blessed Fall!

(What is Faith? Part 2)

Keywords: amish, amish voice, barbara keim, christian living, faith, map ministry, mission to amish people