Thursday, December 13, 2012

God-fidence

"Faith is the confidence of that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."  Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

The King James translation says:

"Now faith is the substance of things of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 

Let's break this verse down today.

"Faith" comes from the Greek word pistis.  It means "belief, confidence in God, or assurance".  
 Faith is having full confidence in God.  It is being assured that He will do what He said He will do.

Sometimes we don't pay much attention to the little words like "is", but "is" is an important little word!

"Is"  comes from the Greek word "esti" and means "to be present, to happen".
 Faith is present.  Faith is a noun. It is active and alive in our lives.  

"Substance" comes from the Greek word hypostasis.  It means "that which has a foundation, is firm, real being (actual existence)".  It also can mean "confidence, firm trust, assurance".
Faith is a real being and is the foundation of all we believe.  It is our confidence.  

"Of things hoped for" is translated from the Greek word elpizo.  It means "hope or to wait with joy and full confidence".  We can wait with joy and confidence KNOWING our God will do what He has promised to do.

"Evidence" is from the Greek word elegchos.  It means "proof".

"Things" is from the Greek word pragma.  It means "that which has been done, an accomplished fact, that which exists." 

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence"... The evidence will show that what we are hoping for (or waiting for with confidence) has been accomplished. 

When there is a crime and a mystery needs to be solved.  The detectives search for evidence or proof that a crime was committed.  The proof is found by the eyes.  When the proof is found, then they know what happened.  It already has happened, the truth was there all along.  It was already done.  Faith is the same way.   

What we are believing for is already done, our faith will bring it out in the open for us to see.  It becomes our proof of that which we cannot see has actually already been accomplished.  What we are believing for already exists!

"Not" means "not".  {smile}

"Seen" means "to see"  (nothing too deep there).

I hope the study of this verse helps you to see we not only can have confidence that God will do what He says He will do, but even better than that...God has ALREADY done it!  We just cannot see it yet.  That is the confidence we can have!  We can have God-fidence!! 

Related  posts:

I'm Believing God

I'm Believing God {Part 2}











5 comments:

  1. Girl! You got my heart here! I love doing word studies and this was an awesome post!!
    Hugs,
    Jennifer Newsom
    OBS Group Leader

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  2. This was fantastic Sue. I love word studies too. I have always been fascinated with vocabulary and the evolution of language. I especially love delving into the deeper meaning of the words in a scripture. This was a great post. Thank you. :)

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  3. Sue,
    You are such a great teacher, writer, and communicator!!!

    "I hope the study of this verse helps you to see we not only can have confidence that God will do what He says He will do, but even better than that...God has ALREADY done it! We just cannot see it yet. That is the confidence we can have! We can have God-fidence!!"

    Amen!

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  4. Thank you Jennifer, Hopey and Melissa!

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  5. Loved how you broke down my all-time favorite verse in the Bible! Amazing! Thank you for a beautiful post! Love you sweet sister.

    Blessings
    Kristi Seat
    (OBS Leadership Team)

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I heart your comments!