The Faith Factor
Read Hebrews 11:1-7
Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.
(Hebrews 11:1)
Although you may not have the resources to fulfill your deepest desire, don’t lose hope. There is a faith factor. To have faith means to believe and trust in God, who is sovereign, supreme, and Lord over all creation. The earth was created by God. It was spoken into existence by God. The substance by which the world was created came from God. If there is such a thing as evolution or a big bang theory, it is because God created the atom, the matter, the substance from which all things exist. If there was a bang, God was behind it.
Hebrews 11 chronicles the list of saints who believed this very thing. Therefore they obeyed God and trusted that what God spoke would happen. They couldn’t see it, explain it, or reason it out, but they were assured of God’s ability to work in them and for them.
Black History Month helps us understand that our ancestors embraced this very principle of faith. Many of them were brought to America with nothing. But God took nothing and made them (and us) into who we are today—musicians, craftsmen, entrepreneurs, politicians, educators, CEOs, generals, and so forth.
Just as we read of the patriarchs in Hebrews 11, by faith Benjamin Banneker became a self-taught mathematician, astronomer, and author; Dr. Charles Richard Drew pioneered blood plasma preservation; Granville Woods invented the telegraphony, a combination telephone and telegraph, and other electrical equipment that improved the nation’s expanding railroad system; Ida Wells-Barnett became the most famous black female journalist of her time; Madam C. J. Walker became the first self-made millionaire businesswoman and the richest African American woman of her time. If they could do it—achieve, excel, and thrive in spite of circumstances—so can we.
God will provide what we need to fulfill our destiny. God watches over God’s word so that God will perform it at the appointed time.
Prayer: Lord God, I believe that you are willing and able to bless my life and make provisions. I will walk by faith and not by sight. Amen.
excerpt from: African American History Month Daily Devotions 2014 by Angela Roberts Jones. Copyright©2013 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.