R³ Devotional - Day 357

The chapters 11-13 concern several themes that surround the mention of several “Heroes of Faith.”  There is a long discussion and list of names that most will recognize from the Old Testament.  These individuals include, but are not limited to, people such as Cain and Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Moses, and Jacob.

Do you remember how you felt when you were very young and your birthday approached?  You were excited and anxious.  You knew you would certainly receive gifts and other special treats.  But some things would be a surprise.  Birthdays combine assurance and anticipation, and so does faith!  Faith is the confidence based on past experience that God’s new and fresh surprises will surely be ours.

The beginning of faith is believing in God’s character: He is who He says.  The end point is believing in God’s promises: He will do what He says.  When we believe that God will fulfill His promises even though we don’t see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true faith (see John 20: 24-31).

God called the universe into existence out of nothing; He declared that it was to be, and it was.  Our faith is in the God who created the entire universe by His word.  God’s word has awesome power.  When He speaks, do you listen and respond?  How can you better prepare yourself to respond to God’s word?

Believing that God exists is only the beginning, even the demons believe that much (James 2: 19-20).  God will not settle for mere acknowledgment of His existence.  He wants your faith to lead to a personal, dynamic relationship.
 
But does faith make sense, really?  Do you believe because faith makes sense, or because faith doesn’t need to make sense?  Some Christians think people cannot understand God and should not try.  Others believe that nothing true is irrational, including true faith.  The truth is, God gave us minds that should be developed and used.  To ignore intellectual growth is to live a stunted and naïve life.  God wants our trust and faith, even while we ponder and wonder about so many matters mysterious to us.  Even so, we do not believe in a void nor leap into the dark.  Faith is reasonable, though reason alone cannot explain the whole of it.  So use your mind to think things through.  But leave room for the unexplainable works of God.

Sometimes we wonder about the fate of those who haven’t heard of Christ and have not even had a Bible to read.  God assures us that all who honestly seek Him – who act in faith on the knowledge of God that they possess – will be rewarded.  When you tell others the gospel, encourage them to be honest and diligent in their search for truth.  Those who hear the gospel are responsible for what they have heard (see 2 Corinthians 6: 1-2).

Chapter 12 pertains to the call to endurance as we have seen through the great men and women of our past, in the Old Testament.

Chapter 13 is the final chapter in Hebrews and is full of exhortations.  

Hebrews is a call to Christian maturity.  It was addressed to first-century Jewish Christians, but it applies to Christians of any age or background.  Christian maturity means making Christ the beginning and end of our faith.  To grow in maturity, we must center our lives on Him, not depending on religious ritual, not falling back into sin, not trusting in ourselves, and not letting anything come between us and Christ.  Christ is sufficient and superior.