“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”
In my high school yearbook each senior chose a quote to represent themselves. I chose Hebrews 11:1. I was one of those smarty-pants kids, and the smarter you are the harder it is to hold on to faith. You learn to trust in what your own eyes, ears, and brain tell you about reality. I wanted to make a statement that I wasn’t going to lean on my own brainpower to get me through life.
Here we see that faith is the gateway to a reality far greater. Verse 3 gives us a perfect example of how faith and intellect can seem in opposition: how was the world formed? It may seem that science and faith are at odds here — the entire universe was formed by principles of physics or it was formed at God’s command. Everything we see came from nothing. I personally see no disconnection between these ideas because I know that science is only trying to piece answers together and faith is helping me see the character of God. Truth-seeking only leads to truth if we are genuine in our humble search for answers.
We see in bits and pieces now what we will see fully someday. Faith is the gateway to supernatural reality. We can study things that we can physically see and touch here on earth, but I can’t study God in any real way except by faith. I can perhaps know about him, but I cannot know him without faith. And if I don’t know God then I don’t have access to the spiritual realm at all. There is so much that will be beyond by senses. For me it comes down to this: I am aware of my human limitations and I have faith that there is more to this world than I can explain. My faith has given me the ability to see supernatural power transform lives and to speak things that could not be known except by faith. Hold on to your faith today, one day it will show you everything.