https://odb.org/2025/12/04/believing-more-than-we-see
Hebrews 11:1–4 (NIV): 11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
In the late nineteenth century, few people had access to the great sequoia groves, and many didn’t believe the reports of the massive trees. In 1892, however, four lumberjacks ventured into the Big Stump Forest in California and spent thirteen days felling Mark Twain. Twain was 1,341 years old, three hundred feet tall, and fifty feet in circumference. They shipped part of this remarkable beauty to the American Museum of Natural History, where everyone could see a sequoia.
The reality, though, is that we can’t prove every truth with our eyes alone. Hebrews describes faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith isn’t irrational or a fit of fancy, because the whole story is grounded in a person—Jesus—who has entered human history. Faith includes human senses and reason, but it’s not limited to them. Faith requires more. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,” Hebrews says, “so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (v. 3). (Winn Collier, Our Daily Bread, 4th December 2025).
Faith is to believe in things unseen and yet it is not irrational, in the sense that it is still grounded on facts and logic. That is why faith also requires the use of the mind to understand the tenets of the faith. That is also why many spent years just studying the various aspects of our faith, especially the Word of God and Jesus Christ as the Word and Christ form the foundation of our faith. Paul uses the phrase that we may increase in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ because the more we know Him and of Him, the more mature we become in our spiritual life.
Thus as much as we believe in miracles and faith healing, we still abide by our doctor’s instructions. The latter may not have the perfect cure but it is backed by years of knowledge pioneered by those in medical research. Yet God can still heal in the midst of treatment. It is wrong to say that if we take the medical route that we do not have faith for God to heal us. For example, while Covid vaccines had not gone through vigorous testings and thus may lead to unknown consequences, they were still necessary to save millions of lives as medical infrastructure was not able to cope when thousands and thousands require respitory assistance. Without vaccines, Covid patients die within days when the virus attacked their lungs and incapacitated their natural ability to breathe.
Our faith is based on the LORD God that we can’t see. Our Saviour who was God incarnate, the Immanuel, walked the earth 2,000 years ago and there are infinitely more who believed in Him who did not see Him in the flesh compared to those who did. Yet millions over the ages gave their lives and many died and sacrificed their lives for His name’s sake.
We are who we are in the faith because we believe in the hope that Christ will return one day in full glory and power (it should be soon) and we will have life eternal in the new heaven and new earth, where God will once again dwell amongst His people but in tangible form. One day, not now, the things unseen will be seen. Until then, it requires faith to believe and hope.
Ronnie's Thoughts 