Hope, faith and patience Hebrews 6:12 The author of Hebrews has already complained that his readers seem ‘slow’. They are slow to hear him (Hebrews 5:11). In other words, they do not want to hear what he is teaching them. And the result is that they are not becoming mature Christians. They should be teachers – but they are behaving like babies (Hebrews 5:12)! But now the author uses that same word, ‘slow’ again. And he says that his readers do not need to become ‘slow. Instead, they should be ‘eager’ (Hebrews 6:11) because they have hope. God has given promises – and the benefit of those promises is for them. God will do everything that he has promised to do. But he will not do all those things immediately; he will do them at the proper time. That is why we need hope, faith and patience. Hope is our confident attitude because we expect God to do those good things. We are sure because God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18-19). We do not need to worry. We are safe because God protects us. Faith is active belief and trust in God. Because we believe God, we obey him. Because we trust God, we depend on him. So we act in a manner that shows complete trust in him. Because of our hope and faith, we can be patient as we wait for God’s help. We may have many troubles. But we know that God will not disappoint us. The Bible gives many examples of people who have trusted God in this manner. The author gives a long list in Hebrews chapter 11. We must learn to behave as they did. Like them, we wait for God to act powerfully on our behalf.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 09:46:19 +0000