The Unseen Promises

Hebrews 11:1  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Have you ever searched online, trying to find a specific thing to purchase? Upon finding a website that has what you were looking for, maybe that item was only available for local pickup and shipping it wasn’t an option. So you decide that you are going to jump into your car and go and pick it up yourself. You didn’t actually see with your own eyes that the store has that item, but you believe the website when it says that it will be there. You believe in something that you haven’t seen.

Years ago we decided that we wanted to get a dog, and after much searching we finally found one that we wanted. We contacted the owner, set up a time and date, and on that agreed date we left our home to go and pick up our new dog. Even though we had about an hour and a half drive to get to the pickup point, we had belief that at the end of our drive we would soon be holding our new dog.

There’s a word for this, the belief in something that is unseen. It is faith. It is faith that causes a person to continue to have hope and belief in something that is not based on proof. We cannot see God, as no one has seen God at any time (John 1:18), but we have belief and confidence that He exists. And because we believe in Him, we believe in the promise that He has left us in the promise of everlasting life in Heaven someday.

Romans 8:24-25  “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

If the human body was able to live eternally then we would have no reason to seek it. But we don’t live forever. We are born, and then we die. And God’s word promises us that if we believe in the Son of God we shall have that promise and receive eternal life.

The Bible is filled with many examples of faith, many examples of people believing in the promises of God because they had faith in things which they couldn’t see.

Hebrews 11:6-13  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Have you seen Jesus with your own eyes? But do you believe that He is real and that He is the one, true Son of God? We just read about a handful of different people who, even though they didn’t see it or have proof that something would happen, still believed in the promises of God. Noah believed when he was told to prepare for the flood, Abraham believed that someday he would have a son–even though he was nearly one hundred years old! They had faith and never gave up hope in His promises. 

So do you have that kind of a faith? Do you believe in the unseen promises of God? 

In Christ

Andrew