Faith with a View

What is Faith? Paul teaches us in Hebrews 11:1-2,

"Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for."

Why would we have faith in what we do not see? Paul tells us Colossians 3:1‭-‬2, "Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

And we read in 2 Corinthians 4:18 that "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal". The focus of our faith is not to be on earthly things, but on heavenly things, that which is eternal, that which doesn't waste away.

Let us look at the examples of the "ancients" who Paul wrote about in Hebrews 11:

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family." (Hebrews 11:7)

"By 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." (Hebrews 11:8)

"By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt". Even though he didn't live to see it, he had full confidence in God's promises. (Hebrews 11:22)

They didn't blind themselves with the physical circumstances around them, but rather, they focused on God's promises because they knew God was bigger than anything in this world. Just as we read in
I John 4:4, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

Paul tells us that,

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth." (Hebrews 11:13‭)

While the focus of our faith is on what we cannot physically see, we do not have a blind faith…We have a "faith with a view" just like the "ancients". We have a view of eternity, our guaranteed future.
We have a view of God's fulfilled promises. We have a view of the Promised Land. Even though Moses was not going to enter the physical Promised Land, God allowed him to see it. Even though we are not yet entering our Promised Land, God has allowed us to see it through His promises.

Apostle Paul encourages us in Hebrews 12, "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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross." (Hebrews 12:1‭-‬2)

Even Jesus had "faith with a view", the view of the joy he knew was on the other side of the cross.

So let us not be blinded by the physical, temporary circumstances that surround us, but rather, let us keep our focus on the faithful promises and eternal things of God. Then we will be filled with the joy and peace which results through living by faith... Faith with a view.

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