MEANING OF FAITH
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: HEBREWS 11: 1-8, 13-16
KEY VERSE
Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen
Hebrews 11:1
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
Nehemiah There are many wonders in the world. There are beaches that are amazingly beautiful with their white sands and their sparkling blue water. Then there are beautiful hills and mountains covered with all kind of beautiful flowers and vegetation in the summer while some of them are covered with sparkling white snow in winter. They are many different kind of flowers, plants and trees with different colors and with different smells. Then there are an amazing variety of all kinds of animals.
We appreciate and love these amazing wonders in the world because God has created us with a sense of sight so that we can see things, and a nose so that we can smell lovely fragrances from things. We have fingers and hands that we can use to touch things, and we have a skin that is the largest organ in the body so that we will get all kinds of beautiful sensations from the world around us.
But the Scriptures tell us that there is another world with amazingly beautiful things. God lives in that world even though He also inhabits our world. God is so powerful and different from us that He is everywhere at the same time.
Because God has given us the ability to have faith we know that there are things that we cannot see and these things are real. God has created the beautiful world that we live in but He has also created a beautiful and mysterious world in which He lives with the angels and He has told us that through the means of our faith we know that we can hope for seeing these things and enjoying them.
Our Key Verse therefore tells us that Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, and it provides proof of things that we have not yet seen.
We thank God therefore for creating us in such a way that we can touch, smell, see, watch, and enjoy everything in the world, but we also thank Him for giving us the gift of faith so that we can be certain of the things that we would like to have, that amazingly mysterious world where God and angels live and for the fact that faith gives us proof of the things we have not yet seen.
Faith therefore makes us strong and it requires that we should be patient and do what our loving God asks us to do. God gives us great promises and the Holy Spirit has given us personal assurance that the promises of God are real. The Holy Spirit has put these things in our hearts.
In this chapter of the Book of Hebrews we have been given a list of people who lived in faith and because of that they did what God wanted.
We have been told about Abel, a son of our first parents Adam and Eve. He brought the correct kind of sacrifices to God and God was pleased with what he did. He had the right kind of faith. He brought the right kind of gifts or sacrifices to God because he believed the promises of God. Therefore he was considered righteous because of what he did. On the other hand his brother Cain was angry and envious at what Abel had done and even though God warned him that he must behave and start to do the right thing he murdered his brother Abel. He was a pretty wicked person. He had no real godly faith.
Then we are told about Enoch. He had faith and he was so obedient to God that the Bible said that he walked with God. He was so close to God and in lockstep with God when walking that God took him up to heaven without him even dying. God knew that he had been a good father in his family, a good husband, treated his wife well, and taught his children well. The people in the neighbourhood love him because they knew he was a man of God and a great citizen, and he worked hard to support his family and everybody else.
We are told that faith makes us walk close to God.
Then we are told about Noah and he had such great faith that when God told him that the people on the Earth around him were so really wicked and evil everywhere that He was going to destroy everybody except Noah and his family. He obeyed God when God told him that he should build an ark, a large self contained covered boat with three stories high so that he, his family and many other animals could live safely. When the Flood which would destroy every living thing on earth came it would not destroy them. It took Noah 120 years to build the Ark. He preached about the righteousness of God and how sinning was bad and would destroy them. He told people what God intended to do. He told them that they should stop doing evil and follow the Commandments of God. But they did not listen and when the Flood came and the doors of the Ark was shut and nobody could get in, the waters killed everything that was on the outside of the Ark.
So we are told that when you have faith you will do the work that God has given you to do. People with real faith are not lazy.
Then it tells us about Abram. He lived in a highly developed city which had a great set of laws. Ur of the Chaldees was one of the most developed cities on the face of the earth at that time. But they were pagans they believed in what they called the Moon god and Moon goddess. There were pagans and God did not like that. So God told Abraham to move away from his family to a distant country, to a place that he had never seen. This was a call from God to Abram to move and live a very risky life. Abram did not know exactly where God was sending him and he did not know the people who lived there whether they were going to be nice or not. God made Abram some very great promises and it is because of these promises that we are saved through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abram obeyed God and he left his safe hometown and went where God led him. He and his wife had no children but God promised him and his wife Sarah that they would have children and those children would be the start of a great nation through which the Messiah would be born. The Messiah who name was Jesus Christ would save them, and save everyone who believed in Him as Saviour. Abram had great faith. He and his wife Sarah waited patiently for the promised child to be born. Abram was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old when finally a miracle occurred which had never happened before in history. Sarah though she was very old got pregnant and she had a child and that started human beings on the road to salvation.
Abraham and Sarah believed God and trusted in Him to fulfill all the promises they had been given. They had great faith.
We learn from all these people therefore Faith is absolutely necessary if we are to please God. We must believe that God exists, and that is a God of mercy and loving kindness. He created us and He loves us. He has prepared a great plan so that we would be saved and we would be in Heaven with Him and on the New Heaven and New Earth that He has created.
So make sure that you are obedient to God, trusting Him, and do what He asks. God will give you the power to do all of that and to please Him. Then He will give you great rewards. You can be sure of that. It is certain. You might not have all the great blessings yet but you know by faith that He will have them delivered to you by special delivery one day. You will receive the promises, all that God has said He would give you.