1 Corinthians 13:11-13
Faith, Hope, and Love
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Hebrews 11:1
By Faith
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Faith in Things Unseen
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I sometimes things that often God remains content to be unseen...It seems to me that He doesn't seem to want to come out of this hiding...And He seems content to remain unseen to His children...Yet, as we age we learn about those different things, these things that are unseen and we realize their importance...God and His Son have done miracles in the past, but it seems to me -that our LORD does not want to be measured and believed in on the number of miracles He does or has done...
There are three great things we learn as we age...Those three things are faith, hope, and love...All of these three things are unseen...As one matures in their life and their faith we realize what St. Paul says and what he means -and we better understand the importance in our own life of faith and hope and love...
The author of Hebrews gives us his definition of faith...Faith is being sure of what we hope for and faith is certain of things we do not and cannot see...St. Paul writes that the things that man sees is only temporary...It is those things that we cannot see that are important and unseen, for those are the things of eternity...So just because we cannot see the unknown does not make it unimportant...In fact, since St. Paul tells us that the things unseen are eternal, these things then are the sacred and holy things...These things we cannot see are the important things in our lives...Faith and hope are two of these sacred and holy things...
So faith is something you cannot see...Our faith at times must be in things we do not quite understand...This can make faith something in the unknown...So, at times, we must have faith in things we cannot see, cannot understand, and in the unknown...This makes faith challenging at times...So we should take heart in knowing that faith is not easy...But that does not make believing and our faith impossible... Because God, in His infinite wisdom, has given faith and hope a certain power...As St. Paul writes, faith and hope are two of the most important things one can learn about and have and keep in our lives...As St. Paul writes we can almost feel the important of faith and hope in our lives, and that mysterious power God has given the faith and hope virtues...
We often pray and ask for things that we do not have and need and want Him to do, for ourselves, or for others...Our prayers may be about better health for someone, or having something we do not have, or it maybe help getting through a crisis or troubles...These type prayers are basically questions from us to our Father, asking for something unknown and something in the future that is unseen (to us)...Let us thank the LORD for those things of the unknown, those things of mystery, and those things unseen...Understanding this, we better see the importance of the unseen and the unknown...We can better put our faith and hope and our future in the LORD, the eternal...