Faith as it is..

Text: 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11 v. 1)
Thesis statement: Living a radical life of faith, seeing, running and grasping after that which God has called us to in Christ.
Introduction:
Faith, what really is it?
Faith is believing and acting on the will of God to which He puts into our heart by His Holy Spirit.
Nowadays, we see ‘active faith’ being preached with regards to living our talk and walk as Christians. Well, I think to say ‘active faith’ is extraneous superfluity based on the book of James because Faith by itself is active by nature, if not, it is not faith and that is the thrust to which James was exerting Himself on and not that we are saved by works and not on faith alone. You’d probably realise that it is extraneously superfluous in saying ‘extraneous superfluity’ in making out of what ‘active faith’ was because it leaves with us the notion that faith by itself isn’t active so much that we have to add ‘active’ to what we think faith is, and that is exactly the mindset to which we think of faith today, isn’t it? That faith is believe devoid of action. Not all beliefs constitutes as faith although faith does constitute believe. Thus It is an erroneous belief to believe faith is devoid of action as much that we have to add ‘active’ to faith.
Faith isn’t presumptuous. It seems that today, the Christian’s concept of faith is how we want it to be, contributed by this postmodern society. We often think, we have a ‘free will’ and thus since that is so God-given, my life is how I want it to be and my faith is made out of vain desires of which God blesses me and showers me with His grace and He’d grant me these desires of my heart when I delight myself in Him. Well, presumption can come in a more subtle form when it comes to things like choosing a life partner, your career path, ministry perhaps… ? directions to take at crossroads in life, etc.. and if its presumptuousness we have with regards to faith, it is not faith and it is yet again an erroneous notion, a very thin ice we’re walking on.
Faith then is :
Seeing : (v. 8) 8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Faith is seeing God’s perfect will and plan laid before us but it is often time either we’re too obstinate or we doubt and fear. Faith is like a lens, allowing us to have a glimpse of what God has set before us. God has set Christ as our focus, the author and perfecter of our faith because He has been there and done (2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. v. 2)
that and now sits at the right hand of God and in Him lies our very impetus, our driving factor to live and die for Him to which Apostle Paul is confident of saying, “ For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. And when He said “7We live by faith, not by sight.”. It is seeing not how circumstances appear which makes for us barriers and obstacles which causes us to lose hope but rather, faith is seeing, and responding with confidence, and being able to say yet again as Paul did “28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8 v. 28) Because we’re more than conquerors through Him who love us (Rom. 8 v. 37). And this faith propelled Abraham to see and was able to look at the city of whom its architect and builder is God Himself (v. 10). When we have faith, it is “almost as if” we’re elevated to see things as God does, yet leaning on His gracious and everlasting arms, waiting on Him.
4For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. (Isaiah 64 v. 4)
Faith is seeing reality as it is, recognizing God is a realist because He created reality. And reality is that life isn’t and doesn’t always work out the way we want it to be but every circumstance is an opportunity to depend on God, and in His love are we more than conquerors, so that we do not as much become subject to our circumstance than we make our circumstance a subject to which we glorify God for His all sufficient grace when we look right at Christ with faith, and it is His will that we give Him praise for the glory of His grace.

Running:
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12 v. 1)
Faith is running towards that which God has called us to, and not merely strolling as if life was like a walk in the park.
It is marked by
i) Perseverance
ii) Excellence; 24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Cor. 9 v. 24)
Which makes faith a fight as well as Paul also puts it “7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4 v. 7). We’re embattling against our sinful nature as well as the hustle and bustle of life which oftentimes makes our existence a bane and pain so much that Nietzsche, in His Philosophical work ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ said that one is to overcome himself by ‘will to power’. And to that it was commented that Nietzsche used concepts pertaining to Christianity somewhat and that ‘Will to power’ is equivocally compared to that of the Christian concept of ‘Grace’. However, grace is never of ourselves that we should boast, it is God’s unmerited gift to save us and it’s the impetus that propels us to live for Him, and by His grace are we able to run this race with perseverance knowing fully well that it is never by our effort and we have complete assurance that if we are in Him, nothing can separate us from His love.
38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8 v. 38-39)
It is such, that when His love so compels us, it propels us also to serve Him with excellence!
9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Cor. 15 v. 9-10)
His grace is so efficacious that it works in and through us, saving, sanctifying and supplying us with His strength to do the work to which He has called us. Ministry is never there to really be called ours but rather entrusted to us to perform not by our own strength but by His Holy Spirit and Grace in our lives working out that which He is working in us, increasing our capacity and ability while molding us to perfection.
6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil 1 v. 6)

Grasping:
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3 v. 12-14)
Faith is grasping hold of God, recognizing that we need Him and the more we know Him, we’d love Him more and more, and the more we love Him, we’d want to know Him more and more, leaning on Him and depending on Him. If we do not, we’d be stagnant where we are…
…A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "
32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5 v. 24-34)
We could either sit there and kept believing and do nothing about our condition or we could believe and act upon His will, and His will is that you be healed from whatever condition you have that hinders and incapacitates you from being conformed into the image of Christ, being transformed from glory to glory… He wills to grant you a breakthrough each and everyday, and revealing Himself to you in a fresh dimension to Himself if only we’d get out n grasp hold of the hem of His garment. To sit there and do nothing is to act out of presumption and dwell on the “what ifs…. What if I reach out and touch and nothing happens?”.. and so we sit where we are and do our own thing, which wears us out in suffering the consequences of our weaknesses and frailty, it is when we grasp on to Him that His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses.