The Greatest Faith

The Greatest Faith

July 7, 2008

Heb 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."

Most of us don't wrestle with the idea of faith being "the evidence of things unseen." If you truly believe God exists, that is faith. It is pretty easy and requires nothing from us; it costs us nothing. But there is the other half of the definition, "the substance of things hoped for." If you are hoping for eternity in heaven, you are said to have faith. If you have eternal hope when you die, you are putting assurance in salvation or eternity in Heaven with Him.

This "substance of things hoped for" part of our faith gets difficult as it requires us to put our belief into action. You may need to have faith that your child will be healed of cancer or that your loved one will eventually be saved. This part of faith begins to cost us. It requires that we buy stock in God and His Word. We may have to give of our precious time in obedience to Him, with no opportunity of getting it back. But if it is what God asks of us, then we are being true to demonstrate faith. Then faith begins to cost us even more. We are asked to give God a tithe, a tenth of every penny that we work for, whether that penny is ours or we owe it in taxes. This really gets hard.

The greatest demonstration of our faith is when we give God our money. This is costly because your hard work is easily measured. You can quickly tabulate 10% of your gross income and realize how many hours it took to make that money. It is an exact science but the greatest exercise of things unseen. There is no guarantee in the Bible of what you will get, if anything, as a return on your money. There is no promise of what you are exchanging it for, but it is still required of you. And there is no guarantee that you will ever see it back in the form of money again. Once you give it, it is gone.

Everyone, if considered a Christian, must give God a tithe, a portion of money that may never be returned in the physical sense. This is hard because our money means so much to us. It is costly and can get even more expensive. I know of a man who is wealthy but stopped giving more money once the amount reached $10,000. He rationed that giving his tenth, even if it came out to $17,000 was just too much money. His faith in God is small, even though $10,000 is a lot of money. I also know of a family who faithfully gives a tenth of their money based on their gross income. It comes out to only about $2,200 a year for their family of four, but their faith in God is huge. They certainly need that extra $2,200 a year, but they would suggest that their faith is far more important than what that money could buy. They have the greatest of faith.

Their faith is huge because they believe God is bigger than their financial worries and woes. It is huge because they believe God will take care of them no matter how hard times might get. It is huge because they have "the substance of things hoped for AND the evidence of things unseen." They trust that God will take care of them around every bend, financially or not. Tithing is the greatest exercise of our Christian faith and it is not for the weak.

1. Do you demonstrate your faith in God by giving a full tithe?
2. Is your faith in God great enough to give even more?