Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
A Trip to Israel
A few years back I was fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Israel, and it was mind-blowing to be able to put my eyes on so many of the locations that we read about in Scripture. During that trip, there were all different types of side conversations, and the guide would lead us to show us some different things.
I remember one time one of the instructors was talking about faith, and this conversation that unfolded was one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. We were there discussing something about one of the sites, and somebody mentioned this idea of faith, and the person leading us had more of a Middle Eastern lens on the Scriptures. In other words, they understood, through the culture and through the language that would have come from where these Scriptures were originally written, primarily.
Faith: Noun or Verb?
They were talking about faith, and how in the West, where we live here in the United States, faith is primarily thought of as a noun. It's something that we hold onto, something that we stand on. You'll hear phrases like, my faith is really important to me. I hold it true to my heart. It's sort of a thing that informs the way that we live as Christian people.
They went on to describe how faith, from an eastern set of lenses—someone who might live there in the Middle East, for example—would sound a little bit different. It isn't as much of a noun as much as it's a verb. They would even say that there are certain instances where if you were to translate the word "faith" in the Bible, it would be more like the English word "faithing," which we know isn't actually a real word. What they were getting at is that faith, in more of a Western context, might be us holding it as something to have—it is mine. Whereas faith, from the perspective of the biblical author and probably reader, would be an expression of what is held internally. Faith is an expression of what comes out of you as a result of what you believe.
What Faith Looks Like
For example, if I were to say, hey, what do you believe about— and fill in the blank there, many of us, in our explanation of what we believe, would say things that are very articulate and maybe even passionate about those beliefs, and it would probably be counted to us as belief. But what I realized is, if you were to talk to someone in a context similar to where the biblical authors would have been, their thoughts would have been, what is coming out of your life that shows what you believe to be true internally? In other words, there is going to be evidence that your belief is real.
To relate this to our verse today, I want you to know that because of what we believe, there are things that are true about our lives. It also goes on to say that's evidence of something you can't see.
A Hidden Life with God
I often will say that if we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot be fruitful. This comes from a man named Henri Nouwen. When he talks about this, he's saying that who we are in hidden places will be evidenced out in the world. If we have a real connection with Christ, the evidence of that faith will show itself to be true.
Cultivating What's Behind the Scenes
Today, wherever you find yourself, maybe the thing that we need to cultivate isn't just the appearance that we have faith—the appearance that we're showing ourselves to be allegiant to Christ—but maybe it's the hidden work with God, the behind-the-scenes relationship where we are rooted and grounded and built up in Him. That's what informs who we are in the world, so that our faith would show the evidence of real connection to Christ.
Let's think about that as we go through our days.
