Faith That Doesn’t Get to See

Imagine you're a general manager who assembles a wonderful group of young players who win a string of championships and go into the record books . . . only you died before any of the success began.  Or that you're a pastor of a fledgling church and you pray for a mighty revival and God answers . . . two generations after you've left the congregation.  Or that you start a business that stumbles along for several years, finally catching fire and going public . . . when your daughter takes over the reins.  Or that you pray daily for your grandchildren to become Christians, which they finally do . . . when they themselves are grandparents.

 

This is kind of like the plight of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.  God makes some bold promises to them, the fulfillment of which they don't get a chance to see with their own eyes.  Some get a foretaste, others nothing at all.  None get to see it themselves.

 

I'm challenged by faith that believes in spite of the likely prospect that the fullness of the things we're believing in won't get revealed until we're long in the dirt.  I'm challenged because I am part of the "instant gratification" generation.  Also because though I consider myself a big thinker and a future-oriented person, it is bigger than I can imagine to conceive of living a life that is so impactful and so influential that it births huge things several generations beyond my own lifetime. 

 

But this is the faith the heroes in Hebrews 11 exercised, the kind of faith God is inviting us to have, the kind of faith that God makes possible.  O that we'd exercise that kind of faith in this day and age, for the sake of our souls and for the sake of many generations to come who, unlike us, will get to see the grand fulfillment of promises long ago promised.