Your name may not appear in Hebrews 11, but your story is there
By Dean Collins
Sooner or later every follower of Jesus comes to enjoy favorite passages of Scripture. If we each made a list, we’d find differences in our selections based on our unique experiences in life and how God speaks to us in the middle of these circumstances. Many believers love passages in the epistle called Hebrews. Often chapters 11 and 12 are favorites.
Chapter 11 helps us understand our faith. It begins, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Our confidence in God grows as we consider “the assurance of things hoped for” and “the conviction of things not seen.”
We all navigate situations in life where we absolutely hope for what we haven’t yet seen. Some days we long not just for a moment of peace but for an eternity of peace. And sometimes we dig deep in our souls to find the conviction and determination to walk forward in faith as we cling to the promises of God.
As chapter 11 unfolds, we recall the Bible stories of old. For some of us who have followed Jesus for a lifetime, we might even recall small Sunday school rooms in basements or beside narrow hallways where someone’s mom taught us about Adam and Eve, Moses, David, Samuel, and Jesus. Chapter 11 is a memory book that brings confidence but also inspires us to keep the faith as it reminds us of our heroes of faith. These heroes give us courage to press on.
These heroes give us courage to press on.
You might have missed where your story appears in your rush to get to chapter 12 where we read the inspirational verse about casting off everything and running our race. But right after the story of Rahab rescuing the spies and being spared from the destruction of Jericho, we find a comment that includes us: “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
All of our heroes died without seeing fulfillment of promises still so far in their future they had no way to imagine them. But then verse 40 talks about us. “God provided something better for us”! We have the opportunity not only to learn about Jesus but to know him and have him live his life in us and through us!
We have the opportunity to know Jesus and have him live his life through us!
But it gets even better as we consider that we play an active role in the grand drama God is still writing even now. Our lives of faithfulness perfect our heroes’ stories to us and ultimately bring their stories to perfection. How we respond to our lives with faith in Jesus makes every hero’s story better because somewhere in eternity they see their struggle was worth it.
Somewhere in eternity, they see their struggle was worth it.
This should not only encourage us but remind us that we are someone’s hero today, and even when we are gone our story will be remembered by those whose lives we touched. As believers, we pray and hope that our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. and others in our community come to know, follow, and experience life in Christ. Remembering how we navigated our lives may one day bring them all to faith, and they then will complete our stories.
Your time with God’s Word
Hebrews 11:1-40 ESV
Photo by Neil Fedorowycz on Unsplash
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