Examples of Faith

Spend some time today studying Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. Read it aloud first, without stopping. Then read it a second time, and write down your thoughts to the following questions:

• Reread verse 1. What do you hope for today that you cannot yet see? (Think of immediate needs and eternal dreams.)
• What role does faith play in your personal testimony and in your conversion?
• Read verse 3 again, about God and Creation. Why, in many ways, should the existence of the Creator God be the easiest thing to accept on faith?
• Read verse 6 and write the message of this verse in your own words.
• Verses 7–40 unpack the lives of various biblical personages. Why is faith the central factor that defines the strength of these people’s relationship with God?

Knowing God and having a living, strong relationship with Him requires faith. How can you strengthen your faith or encourage someone whose faith is wavering? Here are just a few ideas:

A tiny faith (like a mustard seed) is powerful and is all you need in order to grow a relationship with God (Matt. 17:20). As long as you’re willing to work with Him, God will help your faith grow.

Faith comes from hearing God speak to us in His Word, the Bible (Rom. 10:17). Commit to daily Bible study and prayer.

Ask God to increase your faith (Luke 17:5). As did the father who came to Jesus with a possessed child and who “cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’ ” (Mark 9:24, NKJV), we can recognize our unbelief and ask for God to increase our faith.

Faith and doubt can exist together (Mark 9:24). Don’t walk away from God simply because you have questions. In fact, it’s important to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12–16) and to “own” your faith rather than borrow it from another, as five of the virgins tried to do (Matt. 25:8).

Respond to the Holy Spirit and ask for more of Him in your life.

Exercise your faith. Remember that faith is not a feeling but a decision to believe. Remember that even in darkness, when you can’t see Him, God is there (2 Cor. 5:7).

As a personal prayer of thanks to God for His faithfulness, consider the words from the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

Those who closely connect with God may not be prosperous in the things of this life; they may often be sorely tried and afflicted. Joseph was maligned and persecuted because he preserved his virtue and integrity. David, that chosen messenger of God, was hunted like a beast of prey by his wicked enemies. Daniel was cast into a den of lions because he was true and unyielding in his allegiance to God. Job was deprived of his worldly possessions and so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends, yet he preserved his integrity and faithfulness to God. Jeremiah would speak the words which God had put into his mouth, and his plain testimony so enraged the king and princes that he was cast into a loathsome pit. Stephen was stoned because he would preach Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten with rods, stoned, and finally put to death because he was a faithful messenger to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. The beloved John was banished to the Isle of Patmos “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
These examples of human steadfastness, in the might of divine power, are a witness to the world of the faithfulness of God’s promises—of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. As the world looks upon these humble men, it cannot discern their moral value with God. It is a work of faith to calmly repose in God in the darkest hour—however severely tried and tempest-tossed, to feel that our Father is at the helm. The eye of faith alone can look beyond the things of time and sense to estimate the worth of eternal riches.
The great military commander conquers nations and shakes the armies of half the world, but he dies of disappointment and in exile. The philosopher who ranges through the universe, everywhere tracing the manifestations of God’s power and delighting in their harmony, often fails to behold in these marvelous wonders the Hand that formed them all. “Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” No hope of glorious immortality lights up the future of the enemies of God. But those heroes of faith have the promise of an inheritance of greater value than any earthly riches—an inheritance that will satisfy the longings of the soul. They may be unknown and unacknowledged of the world, but they are enrolled as citizens in the record books of heaven. An exalted greatness, an enduring, eternal weight of glory, will be the final reward of those whom God has made heirs of all things.—Lift Him Up, p. 328.