Believe And You Will See

Don’t see the hand of God in your world? Believe that his hand is there—and sooner or later you will see it. “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” (Augustine) Thank God, whatever is offered in faith will always be rewarded.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 15:1-6

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Authentic Christian faith is the present acceptance of a reality that is still future. The next time you take a drink of water from your faucet, you are accepting in the moment that the water will be safe to drink. The next time you sit down on a chair, you are accepting in the moment that there will be structural integrity in the chair to bear your weight.

Faith is to believe what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without this kind of faith, it’s impossible to discover God. You’ve got to believe he exists, and that he is good, fair and personal for you to find that God is good, fair and personal. That is the pre-condition for God revealing himself to you, as Anselm argued: credo ut intelligam—“I believe so that I may understand.”

Hebrews 11: 2 tells us, “It was by this faith that our spiritual ancestors won God’s approval.” One of those spiritual ancestors was Abraham, the man in our story today. So how did this kind of faith play out in his life here in Genesis 15?

Again, we see in Genesis 15:1-3, “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision: “Fear not. I’m your shield, your very great reward.” But Abraham said, “Lord, what can you give me since I’m childless and the one who’ll inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

Eliezer was Abraham’s chief steward, and by legal right in the ancient Near East, next in line to inherit his master’s wealth. But Genesis 15:4 continues, “Then God said: ‘No one else will be your heir; you will have a son to inherit everything you own.’” Now don’t forget, Abraham is 100-years-old—Sarah, his wife, is not far behind—and they have no kids. That’s their reality…that’s what is visible to them.

Genesis 15:5-6 continues, “So God brought him outside beneath the night sky and told him, ‘Look up into the heavens and count the stars—if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!’ And Abraham believed God; then God credited it to him as righteousness on account of his faith.”

That’s what faith is! It is looking past the immediate to see the invisible. And that’s what made Abraham great in the eyes of the Lord and the spiritual progenitor of our faith. He believed what he did not yet see.

And as Abraham’s spiritual children, that is what God wants from us as well—to look beyond our present reality to embrace the not yet. Sounds a little risky, doesn’t it? But what God had said to Abraham in Genesis 15:1 he says to you and me, “Don’t be afraid, for I am your shield and your great reward.”

In other words, when you step out to place trust in God, he himself promised to not only protect your investment or faith in him, but to reward it with the greatest return on investment of all: his very own presence. God is more than your shield, as wonderful as that is. He is also your great very reward: God himself will be your treasure, he will personally become the truest satisfaction you will ever know. And your experience of the presence of God’s will be a far greater pleasure than even the joy of what you are hoping your faith will produce.

Abraham placed trust in God’s promise that he would be his shield and his reward, and that was the turning point in Abraham’s journey of faith. The New Testament writer James says of that moment, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness…” Then he adds: “and Abraham was called God’s friend.” (James 2:23)

Abraham’s greatest legacy wasn’t the results his faith attained—he did indeed become the father of many nations—but it was the relationship his faith gained: he became a friend of God.

The brilliant Augustine of Hippo described it this way: “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” And best of all, what you will see is that when you risk faith in the God you do not see, you will see that you have become a friend of God.