Faith is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the entire Bible. If you ask ten different people you might get ten different answers. But Hebrews 11:1 tells us exactly what faith is. It is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The word “substance” in the Greek refers to “support.” Faith is literally your support!
The problem with faith is how often it is abused. Faith does not give us the right to claim whatever we want, and expect God to deliver it. Jesus said that when we ask anything in His name we will receive it. That phrase “in his name” refers to according to his will or purpose. If you ask for something for selfish purposes God will not answer that. The Apostle James referred to that as asking amiss. God is not bound by his word to answer our selfish prayers. That’s not real faith.
So we understand what faith is, and what it is not. The real question is where do we put our faith? After all, everyone has faith, yes even if you are an atheist. As a matter of fact, you have to have a lot of faith to be an atheist. They just put their faith in a theory that says that nothing blew up and created everything that we see around us. It’s still a type of faith and a belief system. But where does the Christian put our faith, especially in times of trouble?
The answer to this question will determine what kind of Christian you really are. You can say that you have faith and believe in God, but that faith truly gets tested when life doesn’t go the way you think it should. You find out where your faith really is in times of trial. Is my faith in God or is it in my trial?
One day the disciples and Jesus were on a boat. Jesus was asleep when a storm seemingly arose out of nowhere. It was such a powerful storm that it caused seasoned fishermen to be afraid. They woke Jesus up and asked him if he even cared that they were perishing. Jesus calmly rebuked the storm and then asked them a simple question: where is your faith? He didn’t ask them if they had faith. Every man has a measure of faith. He asked them where their faith was placed. In other words, he wanted to know if they had placed their faith in him or in the storm. It’s a question this generation must answer. Where is our faith?
