Hebrews 11 Faith and Hope

Hebrews 11:1

¹ 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.

Hope.  It is a blessed thing.   It’s true that sometimes our hopes can be dashed.  They can seem like there is no hope at all.   But when something changes and a glimmer of light appears hope itself is able to be resurrected.  
Hebrews speaks of faith as a confidence in what we hope for and an assurance about what we do not see.  There are times when it is very hard to see what the plan of God is … but faith rests in the assurance that God will come through.  
In this passage it goes on to list a number of the patriarchs who had faith and even when they did not fully see the outcome believed upon God.  
I especially am encouraged by the account of Abraham’s faith in this passage. 
⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
He was called to have courage.  Leave what he knew.  Follow God.   Trust that even when he could not see where he was going still God would lead.  By faith he recived God’s promise of Isaac.  And by faith he would become the father of nations.   (Though during his lifetime he did not see the full promise of how many descendants he would have.)

As it goes on to say ..

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 
There are times when that promise is shown in our lifetime.  Abraham had a son Isaac.  But even so more often than not the full effect of that promise and that hope is not experienced in one’s lifetime.  But that’s why faith is so crucial it believes when it cannot fully see. 

Questions

What are you believing God for that you are unable to fully see? 
What is God calling you to trust him more in?  Are you listening for His promise?    

 (For further study you can read Abraham’s story begriming in Genesis 12).